An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children
This thesis provides a broad and diverse investigation into the field of psychological treatment for child molesters. A range of methods including a systematic review, a single case study and a primary phenomenological investigation were used to explore issues in the field. Following an introduction...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13778/ |
| _version_ | 1848791804729622528 |
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| author | Walton, Jamie, S. |
| author_facet | Walton, Jamie, S. |
| author_sort | Walton, Jamie, S. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This thesis provides a broad and diverse investigation into the field of psychological treatment for child molesters. A range of methods including a systematic review, a single case study and a primary phenomenological investigation were used to explore issues in the field. Following an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 reviews the effectiveness of psychological treatment for reducing recidivism in child molesters. The results indicate that recidivism among treated and untreated child molesters is yet to consistently and clearly differ and that the treatment outcome literature is obstructed by weak studies using suboptimal scientific designs. In Chapter 3 the aetiology of a child molester’s offending is formulated using the Pathways Model of child abuse (Ward & Siegert, 2002). Treatment sessions addressing areas of criminogenic need are outlined and the impact of the sessions is determined using systems of clinical change on psychometric measures. The results indicate improvements in some of the targeted areas however these were not sufficient to indicate clinically significant changes on both systems used. Chapter 4 explores the lived experience of a sexual preference for children in a sample of five child molesters using the principles of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Four themes were identified. (1) It Creates a Battle for Me, (2) I’m Always Going to Have These Thoughts, (3) There’s No Help Out There and (4) My Interest in Children is More Than Just Sexual. The results have implications for clinical practice and are discussed in the context of directions for further research. Chapter 5 evaluates the Sex with Children scale (Marshall, 1995) which was used as an assessment measure in Chapter 3. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a discussion and close to the thesis drawing together the implications of the research.
Please note that chapter 3, which details a real but anonymised case study is available only in the printed version. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:34:20Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-13778 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:34:20Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-137782025-02-28T11:26:58Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13778/ An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children Walton, Jamie, S. This thesis provides a broad and diverse investigation into the field of psychological treatment for child molesters. A range of methods including a systematic review, a single case study and a primary phenomenological investigation were used to explore issues in the field. Following an introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 reviews the effectiveness of psychological treatment for reducing recidivism in child molesters. The results indicate that recidivism among treated and untreated child molesters is yet to consistently and clearly differ and that the treatment outcome literature is obstructed by weak studies using suboptimal scientific designs. In Chapter 3 the aetiology of a child molester’s offending is formulated using the Pathways Model of child abuse (Ward & Siegert, 2002). Treatment sessions addressing areas of criminogenic need are outlined and the impact of the sessions is determined using systems of clinical change on psychometric measures. The results indicate improvements in some of the targeted areas however these were not sufficient to indicate clinically significant changes on both systems used. Chapter 4 explores the lived experience of a sexual preference for children in a sample of five child molesters using the principles of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Four themes were identified. (1) It Creates a Battle for Me, (2) I’m Always Going to Have These Thoughts, (3) There’s No Help Out There and (4) My Interest in Children is More Than Just Sexual. The results have implications for clinical practice and are discussed in the context of directions for further research. Chapter 5 evaluates the Sex with Children scale (Marshall, 1995) which was used as an assessment measure in Chapter 3. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a discussion and close to the thesis drawing together the implications of the research. Please note that chapter 3, which details a real but anonymised case study is available only in the printed version. 2013-12-10 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13778/2/Doctorate_Thesis_Jamie_Walton_version_2.pdf Walton, Jamie, S. (2013) An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children. DForenPsy thesis, University of Nottingham. |
| spellingShingle | Walton, Jamie, S. An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title | An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title_full | An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title_fullStr | An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title_full_unstemmed | An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title_short | An investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| title_sort | investigation into current issues in the treatment of men who sexually abuse children |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13778/ |