The aim of this study was to develop a self-report instrument to identify schemas in sexual offenders. A schema was defined as a structure, with cognitive contents such as attitudes, beliefs, rules and assumptions centred on a coherent theme, which directs some aspects of cognitive processing. A questionnaire containing items drawn from offenders' explanations for their offending was administered to 657 imprisoned sexual offenders. Exploratory factor analysis yielded two factors, labelled Dominance and Disadvantaged. Both factors showed good internal reliability, test–retest reliability and construct validity. The factors are best conceptualised as modes, containing cognitive-conceptual, motivational, behavioural and physiological components. It is likely that both modes play a role in sexual offending, but the nature of their influence needs further investigation.
The aim of this review is to examine the literature related to the assessment and treatment of sex offenders’ distorted schemas. Where appropriate, the review draws upon current insights from the field of social cognition to aid in the critical evaluation of the findings. First, the review considers the various different methodologies for assessing distorted schemas, discussing their strengths and limitations. Second, the review examines the work related to the treatment of sex offenders’ schemas. Suggestions for future research, and the implications for clinical practice, are highlighted in the article.
We prove that groups acting geometrically on delta-quasiconvex spaces contain no essential Baumslag-Solitar quotients as subgroups. This implies that they are translation discrete, meaning that the translation numbers of their nontorsion elements are bounded away from zero.