Talk:Research

Resources

In addition to the resources listed here and on article talk, there is a list of active lit-review projects here.

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Discussion

Potential topic reviews

• Children in the Courtroom

Is there any evidence to suggest that the legal testimony of small children in abuse cases is nearly always honest? Can small children lie?

What do cases in which minors refuse to testify tell us about the underlying circumstances?

• CSO [cognitive behavioural] treatment; effectiveness of

Contrary to the social desirability hypothesis, the untreated child molesters did not respond significantly faster than controls when they disagreed with the cognitive distortion sentences. Most surprising, however, was the finding challenging the treatment effect hypothesis: treated child molesters were significantly more rapid than both control groups in disagreeing with the cognitive distortion sentences, and their response times more closely resembled their processing speeds for beliefs requiring simplistic semantic judgments than other groups. These results do not appear to be consistent with the idea that treatment teaches these men to be more honest and self-reflective in responding. (Gannon... see cognitive distortion)

[chemical] Castration.

More importantly, however, our follow-up studies of treated sex offenders against children revealed no effect of treatment on recidivism, despite promising pre–post comparisons on various treatment targets such as phallometrically measured sexual deviance (Rice, Quinsey, & Harris, 1991) Indeed, it appeared as if pretreatment phallometric assessment was more closely related to outcome than was posttreatment assessment. It is important to understand that the evaluation of the Oak Ridge treatment program for sexual offenders against children found an effect on recidivism in the wrong direction, not a small effect of treatment that failed to reach statistical significance because of insufficient power. This finding was replicated in an evaluation of the Regional Treatment Centre Sex Offender Treatment Program at Kingston Penitentiary with a larger and more heterogeneous sample of sex offenders (Quinsey, Khanna, & Malcolm, 1998). [...] The augmented sex offender programs did not produce large treatment effect sizes in follow-up evaluations, and the efficacy of treatment for sex offenders in reducing recidivism remains moot (e.g., Rice & Harris, 2003). Notably, the best controlled evaluation of sex offender treatment to date (Marques, Wiederanders, Day, Nelson, & van Ommeren, 2005) found no reduction in recidivism to result from a well-implemented state-of-the-art treatment program for sex offenders. (Seeking Enlightenment on the Dark Side of Psychology, Quinsey, 2008)

• The effects of media exposure during childhood

The instant effects of viewing prohibited material. What can these correlational studies tell us about the long-term effects, and are the conclusions supported?

• The [Roman Catholic] Church

Are offending rates among RC clergy higher than in other denominations? Are rates higher among clergy than among teachers, biological parents, foster parents etc?

• Satanic Ritual Abuse

The debunking of an abuse panic that was once widely accepted among clinicians.

• Modern inventions - "Sexting", "Teen Dating Violence"

• CSO laws

In an attempt to reduce the occurrence of childhood sexual abuse, some state governments have passed legislation allowing the public access to sex offender registries. One of the ways this access is granted is through the world wide web (web). There is, however, limited research on the impact this type of community notification has on actual rates of child sexual abuse. This study investigates the opinions of 133 mental health professionals who work with sex offenders regard ing the implications of public sex offender registry web sites. Over 80% of the participants in this study do not believe that sex offender registry sites will affect the number of children who are sexually abused each year. Seventy percent of the respondents also believe that a listing of sex offenders on the web will create a false sense of security for parents, and over 60% of the respondents believe that sex offenders who are listed on these sites will become targets of vigilantism in their community. Implications, for future research are provided.[1]

Despite the fact that the federal and many state governments have enacted registration and community notification laws as a means to better protect communities from sexual offending, limited empirical research has been conducted to examine the impact of such legislation on public safety. Therefore, utilizing time-series analyses, this study examined differences in sexual offense arrest rates before and after the enactment of New York State's Sex Offender Registration Act. Results provide no support for the effectiveness of registration and community notification laws in reducing sexual offending by: (a) rapists, (b) child molesters, (c) sexual recidivists, or (d) first-time sex offenders. Analyses also showed that over 95% of all sexual offense arrests were committed by first-time sex offenders, casting doubt on the ability of laws that target repeat offenders to meaningfully reduce sexual offending.[2]

Releasing a sex offender from prison or placing the offender on community-based sanctions, only to have the offender commit a new sex crime, is a policy-maker’s worst nightmare. Fueled by misperceptions and public fear, sex offender laws have developed piecemeal and without rigorous empirical insight and testing. While policies and practices are well-intended, they are unlikely to resolve the very real social problem of sexual violence and may inadvertently increase victimization. Such is the possibility with residence restrictions. This type of law is among the newest in an ever-growing barrage of legislation designed specifically for sexual criminals yet what little research that exists suggests there is no correlation between residence and sexual recidivism. This article identifies 30 states with state-level residence restrictions and conducts a content analysis of each state’s legislation. Geographical and other assessments are also conducted.[3]

Every state in the nation has an age-of-consent law making sexual activity below a certain age a crime. n157 In about half of all states, this includes sexual activity between age-peers under the age of consent. In 60% of states, lewd-conduct laws make all sexual activity illegal under the age of fourteen. n158 Since every state now has a minimum age well over twelve, n159 according to the above research, the majority of [*187] children could be guilty of a sexual offense...in many states, an age-of-consent violation triggers a Megan's Law registration requirement. In a number of studies, the majority of adolescents found guilty of sexual offenses used no force at all. n161 Of the ones that did use force, only 4% to 31%, depending on the study and the age of the victim, involved the use of some sort of weapon. n162 The lack of a clear distinction between consensual and nonconsensual illegal sexual behavior results in an often arbitrary distinction between perpetrators and victims, with the majority of perpetrators being low-income boys, most of whom are already being observed by the juvenile justice system and thus subject to extra scrutiny. (Garfinkle, E. (2003). Coming of Age in America: The Misapplication of Sex-Offender Registration and Community Notification Laws to Juveniles. California Law Review, 91(1), 163-208.)

La Fond, J. O. (2008). "Sexually violent predator laws and the liberal state: An ominous threat to individual liberty," International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 31(2), 158-71. [4]

Wakefield, H. (2006). "The vilification of sex offenders: Do laws targeting sex offenders increase recidivism and sexual violence?," Journal of Sexual Offender Civil Commitment: Science and the Law, 1, 141-149.

Perlin, M. L. (1998). "There's no success like failure/and failure's no success at all: Exposing the pretextuality of Kansas v. Hendricks," Northwestern University Law Review, 92.

Merge SOR problems? The Admins 21:31, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

• Familial Sensuality and Sexuality

Reamy, Kenneth J., and White, Susan E. (1987). "Sexuality in the puerperium: A review," Archives of Sexual Behavior, 16(2), 165-186.

"It has been written that "the survival of the human race, long before the concept of duty evolved, depended upon the satisfaction gained from the two voluntary acts of reproduction -- coitus and breast feeding" (Newton, 1971, 1973; Newton and Newton, 1972). Ellis (1935, p. 49) in his "Psychology of Sex" indicated that Bonnet in 1764 in "Contemplation de la Nature" wrote of "the sweet commotion accompanied by a feeling of pleasure" during lactation as reinforcing the "natural affection" of the mother for the child. In the early 19th century, Cabanis recorded that several lactating women reported that the children in suckling at their breasts produced in them "voluptuous sexual emotions" (Ellis, 1935, p. 49). Contemporary research by Robinson and Short (1977) has indicated a dramatic increase in breast sensitivity within 24 hr of parturition which lasts several days. They see this as a "key event" for activating suckling-induced oxytocin and prolactin release and suppressing ovulation during lactation. "The acquistion of postpartum nipple sensitivity might therefore be the key mechanism controlling the infant's present and future food supply, the mother's behavioral response and her reproductive cycle" (Robinson and Short, 1977, p. 1190).

Common physiologic responses of coitus and lactation include nipple erection, mammary venous dilation and breast warmth, and uterine contractions (Newton and Newton, 1967). Vaginal lubrication and clitoral sensations have also been described (Rossi, 1973). Milk ejection (squirting or spraying as well as dripping) can be triggered by sexual excitement as well as breast feeding (Campbell and Peterson, 1953; Fox and Knaggs, 1969; Harnes, 1980; Masters and Johnson, 1966). Breast stroking and nipple stimulation occur during breast feeding as well as sexual foreplay. Nipple stimulation, used clinically in antepartum fetal monitoring, predictably produces strong uterine contractions (Elliot and Flaherty, 1983; Lenke and Nemes, 1984). Neurohumoral reflexes involving oxytocin secretion may be similar in coitus, lactation, and parturition (Newton, 1973; Newton and Newton, 1967).

[...]

Lactating mothers reported sexual arousal, often to plateau levels of response, during nursing. Orgasm was reported on three occasions. Sexual excitement, including orgasm, associated with the suckling of infants has been reported elsewhere as well (Heiman, 1963; L'Esperance, 1980; Newton, 1971; Sarlin, 1963; Weichert, 1977; Weisskopf, 1980).

Although sexual pleasure manifested during lactation (and incompatible with the concept of asexual motherhood) is believed to be uncommon by some (Harnes, 1980; Lawrence, 1980; Waletsky, 1979), it may be more frequent than realized in uninhibited, unrestricted breast feeding (Pion and Reich, 1977; Riordan and Rapp, 1980; Rossi, 1973). Weichert (1977) indicated that 25% of lactaters in a small sample experienced sexual arousal with nursing. There are women who openly enjoy the sexual stimulation that breast feeding may afford (Sarlin, 1963). Others find it uncomfortable, distasteful, guilt producing, and intolerable to the extent that they wean their infants early (Heiman, 1963; Lawrence, 1980; Salin, 1963; Waletsky, 1979). It has been written that if the sensual feelings the mother experiences during breast feedlng "are accepted as a natural, gratifying maternal experience, (they can) strengthen the feeling of tenderness and commitment to her baby" (Riordan and Rapp, 1980, p. 111). Women have reported increased breast eroticism after the nursing experience (Riordan and Rapp, 1980). Anthropologic studies have revealed that attitudes concerning lactation and sensuality show marked variation among societies. The maternal-infant interchange within the Navajo culture is said to show "highly developed sexual innuendoes" including the occurrence of penile erections of the boy babies during breast feeding (Kluckhohn, 1957). Penile erections during nursing have been described elsewhere as welI (Newton, 1973; Sarlin, 1963; Weisskopf, 1980). The soft, contented "nursing songs" made by babies near the end of nursing when they are relaxed are "similar to the spontaneous noises sometimes made during coitus" (Newton, 1973 , p. 998). After breast feeding "there is often a relaxation (of the suckled infants) that is characteristic of the conclusion of satisfactory sexual response" (Newton, 1973, p. 82). (One might add that there is often a relaxation of the sated adult after a warm meal.) The psychoanalytic literature reports the presence of "vaginal sensations and contractions in suckled female infants" (Heiman, 1963). Sarlin (1963, p. 797) indicated that "the first stirrings of clitoral eroticism and the similar phallic erections during earliest infancy are associated with the passive mouth-breast stimulation by the erect eroticized nipple of the mother's breast during actual feeding." He described the nursing infant as "an active participant in an overtly erotic relationship" (p. 798)."

Nelson, Joan A. (1986). "Incest: Self-Report Findings From a Nonclinical Sample," Journal of Sex Research, 22(4), 463-434.

"In contrast to those studies documenting the damaging effects of incest, a few clinical studies reveal nondamaging incest. For example, Sloane and Karpinski (1942), using interviews from five clinical cases, stated that it was the least harmful, psychologically, for younger children with risk increasing as the subject approaches adolescence. They stated further that if a "nonparticipating adult" is comfortable with the incestuous relationship, harm to the child is decreased (p. 666). Henderson (1975) said that such relations do not always seem to have a traumatic effect and that it sometimes even "diminishes the subject's sense of psychosis and allows a better adjustment to the external world" (p. 1,537). Yorukoglu and Kemph (1966) reported minimal, if any, short term effects for one son in son-mother incest (p. 113). Bender and Blau (1938), utilizing the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale and interview data from four court-referred psychiatric patients, concluded that incest within an endorsing (supporting) family can be nontraumatic (p. 500). Fritz, Stoll, and Wagner (1981) found that 77% of adult women who had been victims of childhood incest had no difficulties with current sexual adjustment, had overcome negative consequences, or did not develop problems in the first place (p. 54).

In addition, a few surveys of nonclinical populations indicate that incest, even between adult males and female children, is sometimes nonproblematic. The Kinsey study of women (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953) indicated that 20% to 24% of the women questioned had been molested as children, about 4% having been approached sexually by adult male relatives before adolescence. The Kinsey researchers said "the contacts often involved considerable affection, and some of the older females in the sample felt that their preadolecent experience had contributed favorably to their later sociosexual development" (p. 121). [...]

Schultz (1980), noting that incest research abounds in myths and cliches, states, 'It may be useful for professionals to assume trauma is absent unless clear evidence contraindicates" (p. 1)."

Researchers worth looking into: James Ramey, Joan Nelson, Seymour Parker, Larry Constantine, Wardell Pomeroy

• Identifying and correcting faulty methodology

  So far in the professional literature only two types of children participating in intergenerational sex have been identified: powerless and precocious. Very little attention has been paid to the definition of precocious except as a negative outcome of exploitative early eroticization. The continuum model of intergenerational sexual contact, to be empirically correct, must allow for all kinds of children, including informed, consenting, and initiating participants. Such a balanced typology supersedes the unscientific belief that all children who consent and initiate do so because they are powerless. For children who do indeed consent because they are powerless, the continuum model suggests empowering them not by arbitrarily teaching them to say no to sex, but by teaching sex education in such a way that they know what sex is. Thus they will learn the difference between sex and exploitation so they will know which one it is they are refusing.

  Until now it has not seemed necessary to classify the children other than as victims since children's sexual feelings have been denied or relegated to the categories of sex play and curiosity. As Okami (1987) points out, however, "these are the same impulses and behaviors that in adolescents or adults are characterized as sexual desire and sexual activity!' http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/nelson.htm