One of the fairly well-established findings in the child abuse literature is that victims of childhood sexual abuse will often become sexual abusers themselves. For example, incestuous fathers and stepfathers frequently report high levels of sexual abuse in their own childhood. Victims of childhood sexual abuse may also victimize others in non-sexual ways such as through the commission of a non-sexual but violent crime; however, this facet of childhood sexual abuse has not been well examined.
One theory attempting to explain why abuse victims become victimizers themselves states that some molested children identify with their persecutors. In other words, some people who have been subject to abuse, forced compliance, cruelty or aggression are likely to adopt similar methods of dealing with others. According to the theory, children who are raised in such environments are more prone than others to adopt the style of their abuser as adults. Thus, being the victim of sexual abuse, may contribute to a pattern of sexual assaultiveness or perhaps just abuse in general. The notion that criminal offenders identify with those that abused them in childhood and thus commit similar crimes of abuse has also not been well researched.
This study examined for relationships between childhood sexual abuse and the commission of non-sexual crime during adolescence. Specifically, the conducted study examined for similarities between the characteristics of criminal offenses committed by adolescent males who were sexually abused as children and the characteristics of the abuse situation; this based on the view that the adolescents committing criminal offenses had identified with their persecutors.
The study was considered important for several reasons. First, it expanded the existing through the inclusion of information on the commission of non-sexual abusive crimes by victims of childhood sexual abuse. Second, the study provided additional...