Pergamon Eehav. Res. Ther. Vol. 32. No. 5, 571-575, pp. 1994 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain 00057967/94 57.00 + 0.00 zyxwvuts RELATIONSHIPS BETW EEN CONFLICT, A FFECT AND DEVIANT SEXUAL BEHAVIORS IN RAPISTS AND PEDOPHILES ANDRE MCKIBBEN,’ JEAN PROULX”’ and RICHARD LUSIGNAN’ ’ Institut Philippe Pine1 de Montrial, 10905 est. boulevard Henri-Bourassa, Montrtal, Qukbec, Canada HIC lH1 2School de Criminology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Qutbec, Canada (Received IO September 1993) Summary-The aim of the current study was to determine the relationship in sexual offenders between conflict, affective states and particular sexual behaviors (fantasies and masturbatory activities while having such fantasies). To this end we developed the “Fantasy Report”, a self-assessment method for recording affective components and sexual behaviors. Thirteen rapists and 9 pedophiles filled out the Fantasy Report every 2 days for a period of 60 days. In rapists, negative mood and the presence of conflicts coincided with both overwhelming deviant sexual fantasies and increased masturbatory activities while having such fantasies. Furthermore, the emotions most frequently reported by rapists following conflicts were loneliness, humiliation, anger and feelings of inadequacy and rejection. Affective components, however, were not associated with nondeviant sexual behaviors. For the pedophiles, the data revealed a significant relationship only between negative moods and deviant sexual fantasies. These data are interpreted to mean that, in sexual offenders, negative affect is a crucial component in the chain that leads to deviant sexual behaviors. INTRODUCTION Researchers have developed theories of sexual offenses emphasizing cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors (Malamuth, 1986; Marshall & Barbaree, 1990; Proulx, 1993). However, such theories have paid little attention to affective components. In our clinical work, we have observed instances where emotional factors have played a role in the onset of deviant sexual behaviors. For example, in the course of an interview a patient told us that his girlfriend had left him. Following the breakup he reported feeling humiliated and lonely. He also reported that these negative feelings led him to experience overwhelming deviant sexual fantasies. Other cases have persuaded us that unpleasant emotional states may trigger deviant sexual thoughts which, in turn, lead to an increased probability that deviant sexual acts will be committed. Unfortunately, research concerning such a link is rare. One retrospective study concerning this link was carried out by Pithers, Kashima, Cumming, Beal and Buell (1988). A total of 136 pedophiles and 64 rapists participated in the study; 89% of these Ss reported strong negative affects as immediate precursors of their crimes. Among the rapists, for instance 77% reported feeling anger towards women. Despite the suggestive value of the data of Pithers et al. (1988), they were collected retrospectively and may have been distorted by poor recall or may have been seen by the offenders as ways to rationalize their offensive behavior. Moreover, the data of Pithers et af. were based on only one event and not on a continuous assessment of the relationship between affect and deviant sexual behaviors. Of course, when the behavior of concern is an actual sexual assault, the researcher is restricted to a retrospective recall strategy and can only be concerned with the one reoffense (or at most the limited number of reoffenses that occurred). Relapse prevention theorists (Laws, 1989) propose that for sex offenders, the chain of events leading to an assault involves deviant sexual fantasizing and perhaps masturbating to those fantasies. We could, accordingly, examine the likelihood that negative emotional states trigger these higher frequency behaviors that subsequently lead to an offense, rather than having to wait for a single reoffense to occur. To avoid the problems related to retrospective studies, we have developed an assessment method that we call the “Fantasy Report”. This procedure permits the continuous and concurrent 571