Bogaerts Stefan, Daalder Annelies, Vanheule Stijn, Desmet Mattias, Leeuw Frans
Tilburg University, Netherlands Catholic University of Louvain Research and Documentation Centre, The Hague, Netherlands.
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2008 Feb;52(1):21-30. doi: 10.1177/0306624X07308261. Epub 2007 Nov 8.
This article renders the results of research that investigated personality disorders in a sample of paraphilic and nonparaphilic child molesters. The sample contained 36 paraphilic child molesters and a matched comparison group of 34 nonparaphilic child molesters. The analyses of the research results show that four personality disorders discriminate between both groups. Only the obsessive-compulsive personality disorder contributes significantly to the explanation of paraphilic child molestation. This result also contributes to the development and differentiation of the treatment of paraphilia-related disorders. For several child molesters, psychological approaches to the treatment of sexual offending (e.g., cognitive-behavioral treatment, psychotherapy in general) are limited and cannot be expected to immediately reduce risk. Interest has been expressed in medical approaches to reduce recidivism, in combination with psychotherapy.
