Intimacy deficits, the fear of intimacy, and loneliness among child molesters, rapists, non-sexually offending inmates, and a community sample: A comparative analysis

Intimacy deficits and loneliness have recently been theorized as particularly influential factors in the etiology and maintenance of sexually offending behaviors, although to date there has been a lack of empirical research conducted to address this proposition. The present study compared intimacy deficits, the fear of intimacy, and loneliness between child molesters, rapists of adult women, inmates with no history of sexually assaultive behavior, and a community control sample of adult males. Overall, the child molesters and rapists were found to suffer from significantly greater intimacy deficits than the non sexually offending inmates and community controls, with rapists reporting the greatest intimacy deficits. In addition, the child molesters reported significantly greater fears of intimacy in adult relationships than did the rapists, non sexually offending inmates, or community controls. Furthermore, the child molesters and rapists reported significantly more overall loneliness and emotional loneliness than the non sexually offending inmates and community controls. Multiple regression analyses offered additional confirmation that intimacy deficits, fears of intimacy, and loneliness may be strongly related to sexual offending. Among the best predictors of the degree of overall intimacy in adult relationships were the perpetration of child molestation and the perpetration of rape, with these variables accounting for a relatively large proportion of the total variance. In addition, the single best predictor of the fear of intimacy in adult relationships was the perpetration of child molestation. Likewise, both perpetration of child molestation and perpetration of rape were among the best predictors of overall loneliness and emotional loneliness, again accounting for considerable percentages of the total amount of variance. The current findings are discussed within an adult attachment style-intimacy deficit theoretical framework. This framework suggests that poor quality adult attachments which subsequently lead to intimacy deficits and emotional loneliness are critically related to sexual offending. Several implications for the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders are discussed