Personality and cognition of pornographic offenders; a comparison to sexual and general offenders

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to determine if there are unique personality or cognitive characteristics to help distinguish pornographic offenders from other sexual and general offenders. The participants consist of 45 male offenders, over the age of 18, who have been convicted of viewing child pornography (9), sexual assault (16) or general assault (20). Each of the offenders was also classified by whether they were first time offenders or had prior offenses. Each offender had previously been administered the following two psychometric tests: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. The results of this study aim to determine if pornographic offenders have exclusive traits to help create proper treatment and preventative programs.