Psychopathology and Denial in Alleged Sex Offenders

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Abstract
To investigate whether patients accused of having committed acts of sex offense manifest symptoms of psychopathology and whether they minimize or deny such symptoms during clinical evaluations, we administered the MMPI to 53 alleged sex offenders. We compared patients along two dimensins: a) whether they admitted or denied deviant sexual behavior, and b) whether they faced legal charges for sex offenses. Results indicated the following a) Patients who denied deviant sexual behavior were significantly more likely to minimize psychopathology than were those who admitted to deviant sexual behavior (p < .05) b) Patients facing no active legal charges showed significantly more psychopathology than did those facing legal charges (p < .05) c) The most frequent forms of psychopathology shown by these patients were antisocial attitudes, depression, somatization, and cognitive disorganization. These findings suggest that many alleged sex offenders may experience, and deny, severe psychopathology in addition to their sexual disorders. Clinicians should be alert to subtle signs of psychopathology when evaluating alleged sex offenders who deny deviant sexual behaviour, because these patients may be especially likely to minimize symptoms.

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