literature indicates as associated with pedophilic sex offenses. These variables are: age of victim, extent of offender's pornography use; type of coercion used during the commission of the offense; and whether the offender was himself molested as a child.
Also, the study examines whether recidivism rates are significantly associated with selected offender demographics. These are: age of offender at the time the crime was committed; current age of the offender; marital status at the time the crime was committed; current marital status; and religion of the offender.
The research problem can be characterized as an attempt to answer the following research questions:
1). Do recidivism rates of offenders significantly differ as a function of whether they did or did not attend the psychosocial support group?
2). Do recidivism rates of offenders significantly differ as a function of a significant interaction between attendance at the support group (yes, no) and one or more of the following variables: current age of offender; age of offender at first offense; current marital status of offender; marital status of offender at time of first offense; religion of offender; age of victim at first offense; type of coercion used at first offense; frequency with which offender used pornography at the time of the first offense; current frequency of pornography use; and whether or not the offender was himself molested as a child.
This study is not designed to test any theory. However, it can be noted that the treatment afforded to the offenders is that of a psychosocial support group. According to Laws and Marshall (1990), psychosocial therapy can be considered a derivative of the behavioral model which states that sexually deviant behavior, like all behavior, is learned by in an individual and social (environmental) context.
Laws and Marshall (1990) further state that psychosocial support groups have three basic goals. The...