l offense is provided in a study conducted by Reaves (1994). This study investigated the level of empathy, attitudes towards sex and violence, and the family sexual environment modeled by parents of male juvenile sex molesters.
It was hypothesized that parents of male juvenile sex molesters, as compared to parents of non-delinquent children, would demonstrate lower levels of empathy, more rigid sex role stereotypes, greater sexual conservatism, a greater acceptance of interpersonal violence, more adversarial sexual beliefs, and more negative attitudes towards sexual behavior. Parents of juvenile sex molesters were also expected to provide less sex education, more exposure to sex and nudity, and fewer personal boundaries as compared to the control parents.
Methods used in the study involved comparing twenty-five parents, who participated in outpatient treatment in the San Francisco Bay Area with their sex molesting sons, with 26 parents of nondelinquent boys age 12 through 18 years. Measures used in the study included: the Feshbach Parent/Partner Empathy Scale, Burt's Attitudes towards Sex and Violence Scale, and this author's Family Environment Questionnaire, which included the Baldwin Sex Education Scale.
According to Reaves (1994) results of a multivariate t test followed by univariate t-tests indicated there was a significant difference between groups on all measures of empathy and attitudes toward sex and violence in the expected direction. Contrary to expectations, parents of juvenile sex molesters reported retrospectively that they exposed their boys (when aged 2 through 6) to significantly less sex and nudity in the home when compared to controls. No differences were found for this variable when the boys were older. Also, no differences were found between groups on personal boundaries or amount of sex education provided in the home.
Etherington (1993) has noted that existing research on personality chara...