Cognitions supportive of child molestation

The examination of child molesters' thoughts about themselves and other people, particularly their young victims, has been pursued irregularly over the past four decades. A summary of theory and empirical research from a number of fields (e.g., clinical psychology, social psychology, sociology of deviance) is reported in this critical review. Theoretical attempts to account for cognitions of adults who have sex with children have been sparse. Empirical efforts, on the other hand, have been more numerous and, with some exceptions, there is convergence in number of research findings. Clinical implications for professionals who work with sexual abusers of children are presented.     

Asymmetric influence in mock jury deliberation: jurors' bias for leniency

Investigators have frequently noted a leniency bias in mock jury research, in which deliberation appears to induce greater leniency in criminal mock jurors. One manifestation of this bias, the asymmetry effect, suggests that proacquittal factions are more influential than proconviction factions of comparable size. A meta-analysis indicated that these asymmetry effects are reliable across a variety of experimental contexts. Experiment 1 examined the possibility that the leniency bias is restricted to the typical college-student subject population. The decisions of college-student and community mock jurors in groups beginning deliberation with equal faction sizes (viz., 2:2) were compared. The magnitude of the asymmetry effect did not differ between the two populations. We hypothesized that the asymmetry effect was caused by an asymmetric prodefendant standard of proof--the reasonable-doubt standard. In Experiment 2, subjects received either reasonable-doubt or preponderance-of-evidence instructions. After providing initial verdict preferences, some subjects deliberated in groups composed with an initial 2:2 split, whereas other subjects privately generated arguments for each verdict option. A significant asymmetry was found for groups in the reasonable-doubt condition, but group verdicts were symmetrical under the preponderance-of-evidence instructions. Shifts toward leniency in individual verdict preferences occurred for group members, but not for subjects who performed the argument-generation task. The theoretical and applied significance of these findings is discussed.     

The camera perspective bias: a case study

In this case study, we examined how variations of the camera perspective affect adults' assessment of veracity in a real‐life high‐stake situation; a masked male confessing to a very serious crime. The interview, conducted by one of Sweden's most awarded journalists, lasted 30 minutes and consisted of over 100 detailed questions about the crime. The interview was videotaped simultaneously by three cameras positioned at different locations, each taking a unique visual perspective. One camera focused on the suspect only, one on the interviewer only, and one equally on the suspect and the interviewer. Each videotape was shown to 32 adult observers (N = 96) who were asked to assess the suspect's veracity and to report subjective cues justifying their veracity assessment. The results confirmed the camera perspective bias, by showing that the observers in the ‘suspect only’ condition assessed the confession as significantly more reliable than did the observers in the ‘interviewer only’ condition. The observers reported that they relied heavily on verbal cues when assessing the confession, and particularly regarding confidence and consistency. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Clinical notes on a case of transvestism in a child

This clinical presentation describes the therapeutic process of a 5-year-old male child presenting as a main symptom quasi-delusional feminine enactments starting at an early age, which persisted for most of his five-year treatment. This symptom was understood in terms of an attempt at restitution, itself the result of being confronted with an autistic structure stemming from a series of traumatic incidents during the oral phase: his mother's pregnancy, abortion, depression and subsequent three-month absence at the end of his first year of life. The clinical material, drawings included, illustrates the interplay of oral, anal and phallic levels, with enactment predominant in sessions. The oral traumatic situation initially led to anal-manic play, then to quasi-delusional female personifications in sessions, later surfacing as an annihilating 'black hole'. All the above issued into a broad enacted phallic-genital unfolding that dramatised an oral-genital primal scene, in the course of which he managed to structure his male identity. Near the end of the analytic process the analysand reworked the 'stages' of the link to the analyst. To end, based on the clinical material, the respective participation of the early and the late Oedipus complex is examined.     

Effects of pre‐trial publicity and jury deliberation on juror bias and source memory errors

We examined the effects of exposure to pre‐trial publicity (PTP) and jury deliberation on juror memory and decision making. Mock jurors either read news articles containing negative PTP or articles unrelated to the trial. They later viewed a videotaped murder trial, after which they either made collaborative group decisions about guilt or individual decisions. Finally, all participants independently attributed specific information as having been presented during the trial or in the news articles. Exposure to PTP significantly affected guilty verdicts, sentence length, perceptions of defendant credibility, and misattributions of PTP as having been presented as trial evidence. Jury deliberation had significant effects on jury verdicts, perceptions of defendant credibility, source memory for trial items, and confidence in source memory judgements, but did not affect sentences or critical source memory errors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Convergent validity of and bias in maternal reports of child emotion

This study examined the convergent validity of maternal reports of child emotion in a sample of 190 children between the ages of 3 and 6. Children completed a battery of 10 emotion-eliciting laboratory tasks; their mothers and untrained na?ve observers rated child emotions (happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, and anger) following each task, and trained coders rated videotapes of each task for the same emotions. Consistent with studies using other designs, maternal reports demonstrated weak to moderate convergence with the other rating methods. Extending prior research, a number of maternal characteristics (particularly lifetime psychiatric diagnoses and personality traits) were associated with their reports of child emotions in the lab, above and beyond the effects of objective coding and observer reports of child emotions. For some emotions, mothers' mental health and dispositional variables were more strongly related to their reports of the child's emotions than were objective indices of the child's observable emotional behavior.     

Getting it right: the trial of sexual assault and child molestation cases under federal rules of evidence 413-415

Congressional enactment of Federal Rules of Evidence 413-415 changed centuries of the law which had excluded evidence by the state that the defendant had committed other bad acts and was therefore the sort of person who would be more likely to commit the act charged. The passage of Rules 413-415 opens the door to this type of character evidence in sexual assault and child molestation cases and requires trial judges to assess the probative value of this propensity evidence offered. Yet, neither these rules nor their legislative history offer much guidance in this assessment. This article offers guidance to trial judges and lawyers to assess the probative value of propensity evidence offered under these rules.     

Erratum: Effects of pre‐trial publicity and jury deliberation on juror bias and source memory errors

Effects of Pre‐Trial Publicity and Jury Deliberation on Juror Bias and Source Memory Errors. By Christine Ruva, Cathy McEvoy and Judith Becker Bryant. The above article (DOI:10.1002/acp.1254) was published online in Early View on 21 June 2006. An error has subsequently been identified in this article. The mediation analyses for the critical SM errors mistakenly reported that the Sobel test z was not significant when in fact it was, Sobel test z = 2.17 (1982). Therefore, critical SM errors were found to mediate the effect of PTP on guilt ratings suggesting that these errors may be a mechanism through which PTP imparts its biasing effects on juror decision making.     

Rape myth acceptance: A case for providing educational expert testimony in rape jury trials

The prevalence and content of rape myth acceptance indicate a need for educational expert testimony in rape jury trials. It is proposed that expert testimony regarding common misconceptions about rape and rape victim behavior, conceptualized in terms of a social framework, would help to compensate for societal bias against the complainant in a rape trial. Rape trauma syndrome, eyewitness identification, and general educational testimony concerning rape are discussed. Evidence is presented that suggests inclusion of such testimony serves the purpose of expert testimony according to the Federal Rules of Evidence.     

Bereavement and triangular relationships in a case of a child suffering from anorexia

This paper describes the mother–child assessment of a five-year-old girl suffering from anorexia since weaning, which was carried out in an Italian NHS neuropsychiatric child and adolescent unit. The author aims to show how she was able to link the little girl’s refusal of food to a death in the maternal family, which occurred soon after her birth. As well as this post-traumatic formulation, the author links the child’s anorexia to two related aspects of the family dynamics: avoidance of the awareness of death and the inability to manage triangular relationships, due to important intrusion and exclusion anxieties. Using extracts from the sessions, the author shows how the little girl was able to begin to work through the death phantasy which was previously inaccessible to her and her family. The concept of the death phantasy is defined and explored and possible analogies between this case and what is observed in some anorexic adolescent girls and their families are described.     

Racial bias in decisions made by mock jurors evaluating a case of sexual harassment

White (N = 161) and Black (N = 152) college students served as mock jurors in a simulated civil case in which a female plaintiff accused a male defendant of sexual harassment. The authors experimentally manipulated the race (Black or White) of the litigants and asked the mock jurors to decide whether the defendant was guilty; to rate the certainty of their belief in the defendant's guilt; and, when they judged the defendant guilty, to recommend an award to the plaintiff. Mock jurors of both races tended to favor litigants of their own race and their own gender. Racial bias was highest among White male jurors and lowest among White female jurors.     

The effects of jury size, evidence complexity, and note taking on jury process and performance in a civil trial

A total of 567 jury-eligible men and women who were assigned to 6- or 12-person juries saw a videotaped civil trial that contained either I or 4 plaintiffs. Half the juries took notes, whereas the remainder did not. Six-person juries that did not take notes awarded multiple plaintiffs the highest amounts of compensation. Six-person juries also gave the highest punitive damages when they did not take notes and judged multiple plaintiffs. The punitive awards of 6-person juries were highly variable compared with 12-person juries. Multiple plaintiffs also increased the unpredictability of jury punitive awards. Twelve-person juries deliberated longer, recalled more probative information, and relied less than 6-person juries on evaluative statements and nonprobative evidence. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

The promise of a cognitive perspective on jury deliberation

Despite much psychological research regarding jury decision making, surprisingly little is known about the deliberation process that gives rise to jury verdicts. We review classic jury decision-making research regarding the importance of deliberation and more recent research, investigating deliberation and hung juries, that challenges the view that deliberation does not have an important impact on verdicts. We advocate greater attention to potential cognitive processes during deliberation that might explain the transition between predeliberation preferences and a jury’s ultimate verdict. We then review cognitive work in the group context generally, and the jury context specifically, illustrating the promise of a cognitive perspective on jury deliberation. Finally, we identify cognitive phenomena likely to be particularly valuable in illuminating deliberation behavior.     

Family treatment of an obsessive-compulsive child: a case report

This paper presents a family therapy approach to the treatment of an obsessive-compulsive child. Psychodynamic, behavioral and family therapy approaches to the etiology and treatment of this dysfunction are described briefly, and a detailed case report of a 15-session treatment utilizing behavioral interventions designed to change the family context is presented. Various procedures for dealing with the obsessive-compulsive behavior have been reported in the literature, including eliminating it directly by interruption or ordeal and modifying it. In this case, the author proceeded by ignoring the compulsive behaviors and concentrating on more functional ones using a paradoxical charting intervention. At one-year follow-up, the child was symptom free. Relationship factors, technical interventions, and stylistic aspects of the therapy are discussed, and the importance of rapid symptom alleviation in these children is underscored.     

Investigating the neurodevelopmental mediators of aggression in children with a history of child maltreatment:An exploratory field study

Maltreatment of children is a chronic community problem that increases the risk of future aggression. Despite several decades of research highlighting this relationship, few studies have explored the potential neuropsychological deficits that are likely to mediate it. This exploratory study aimed to examine how child maltreatment may be associated with aggression via impairment in the developing prefrontal-limbic-autonomic pathways that are implicated in neuropsychological models of aggression. Furthermore, it aimed to investigate the relationship between child maltreatment and both reactive and proactive aggression subtypes. To investigate this non-invasively in an at-risk population, children with a documented protective care history (n = 20) and a community control group (n = 30), aged between 6 and 12 years, were compared on measures of cardiovascular functioning, affect regulation and cognitive functioning aligned with this neuropsychological model. Whilst no group differences were found on cardiovascular functioning (i.e., resting heart rate, heart rate reactivity, heart rate variability), the protective care group performed significantly worse on measures of affect regulation and cognitive functioning (i.e., global intelligence, executive functioning, smell identification and social cognition). The relationship between child maltreatment and aggression was mediated by executive dysfunction and affect dysregulation but not global IQ, social cognition or olfactory identification. The results suggest that interventions targeting aggression in maltreated children will benefit from clinical assessment and psychological strategies that address the executive dysfunction and affect dysregulation that has been associated with this clinical outcome.     

Inappropriate speech in a severely retarded child: a case study in language conditioning and generalization

The modification of inappropriate speech, a class of behaviors rather than a limited number of specific examples, is little known in the severely retarded. In this study, operant techniques were used to modify the strikingly bizarre and inappropriate speech of a severely retarded boy. The boy's appropriate verbal responses to questions about magazine pictures were reinforced with candy. When he responded inappropriately, the magazine was withdrawn, and social interaction was discontinued for a 10-sec timeout period. Negative responses were ignored, the next picture displayed, and the next question asked immediately. In 10 sessions, appropriate responses increased from 26% to 86% of all responses. A reversal of reinforcement was then introduced, in which inappropriate responses were reinforced, appropriate responses resulted in timeout, and negative responses were treated as before. This reduced the percentage of appropriate responses to 24%. Subsequent sessions of reinforcement for appropriate responses increased appropriate responses to 96% of all responses. At significant stages in the experiment, a measure of possible generalization was attempted. Although some generalization was recorded, it was minimal: some explanations are discussed.