A Comparison of Relational Attitude and Personality Disorders in the Explanation

This study examined parental sensitivity, relational attitude (i.e., trust, friendship, adult romantic attachment), and personality disorders in the aetiology of sexual offences among a group of 84 child molesters and a matched normal control group (n = 80). The child molesters were selected from either a community-based, edu-cational training program (n = 51), or a Belgium prison (n = 33). Analyses using structural equation modeling found that both relational attitude and personality disorders differentiated between the child molesters and the comparison group. Implications for the aetiology and treatment of child molesting is discussed. KEY WORDS: sex offenders; pedophilia; interpersonal factors. In the past 15 years, research has focussed on the intimacy deficits of sexual offenders (Marshall, 1989; Smallbone & Dadds, 1998). Research has shown that child molesters and rapists experienced less intimacy than comparison groups of normal men (Marshall, 1994) or nonsexual delinquents (Seidman, Marshall, Hudson, & Robertson, 1994). Also, sex offenders report fewer friends in youth than nonsexual delinquents (Tingle, Barnard, Robbins, Newman, & Hutchinson, 1986). Child molesters, in particular, experienced less secure attachment, less inti-macy, and fewer friendships in childhood and adulthood than nonsexual criminals and normal control groups (Smallbone & Dadds, 1998). The attachment styles of child molesters are characterized as anxious, avoiding, and ambivalent (Bumby &amp