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Dominique Wilson
English 2010-013
Professor Nelson
13 November 2014
Child molesters: Wrong wiring in their brain, or mere pleasure
I had my own question since I can relate to those who were sexually abused as a child. I
always wondered why this did happen to me. I realized it was not my fault at all; I did nothing to
deserve this sort of treatment and abuse. I then started to think what makes a person do this to
someone that is a child. Is there something wrong with them, or does this sort of thing seem
normal. I know when it had happened to me, my own cousin was my abuser, and he was the
same age as me. However in my family it was considered normal, and it was not really talked
about; it was more you stay silent and deal with it. I then thought to myself is there something
wrong with him, to make him want to do this, or is this more of a learned type of behavior.
I always wondered why, or what made a person want to do any sort of sexual act on a
child. I realized I need to look into this topic of whether a child molester is doing this for mere
pleasure, or is there something else that is wrong with them? When I had done this research on
why they need harsher punishments, I didnt look at why someone would do this. Instead of
going further into the research that was previously done, I need to look from a different
perspective and a whole new angle. I decided to look for new research on this new angle, and I
found some articles that looked to be promising. Then I narrowed this research even further
about the neurological aspect of what was it was like to be in a child molesters mind, until I was
satisfied on what I had found.

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According to a psychologist friend of mine, Julie ( a psychologist at Northern Utah
Counseling in Clinton, UT) she had told me in one of my sessions, that when a child molester
commits a sexual act, there is something wrong with the wiring in their brain. She also stated
that, these types of people do get counseling and other forms of treatments; however this does
not cure the predator. What Julie means by this statement is these people undergo these form of
treatments and counseling techniques, however this does not always work for a child molester.
In the first article I found which seemed to go where I was heading was "Are The
Cognitive Distortions Of Child Molesters In Need Of Treatment?." by L., Marshall and David
Kingston of Rockwood Psychology Services of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. This was a place
where I could start my understanding on why child molesters use distortion, when it comes to
reliving the events that took place, when the act was committed. I also need to see, if a victims
accusations are reliable or not. According to Marshall and Kingston, Those who start out in
therapy, have to reinstate what had actually occurred in the sexual encounter, which took place
with the child (120). This then leads to going over police statements and statements from people
who were questioned about what had taken place. This can lead to those that are recalling the
events to can be distorted Memories of these events are usually modified since these events
were taken place so long ago, they can easily be altered when being questioned again (120).
This is also considered to be a problem too, since a person could receive information about the
event that can distort what had actually happened. The person that recounts the sexual abuse
would be remembering some facts that did not occur in the event, which would consider their
story to be less credible.
When certain kinds of treatments and recounts of what happen had been made, Marshall
and Kingston describe that, there is a huge risk when it comes to cognitive distortions and the

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failure those offenders that responsibility, whether or not that these distortions can distinguish
child molester from other (121). This is seen that if cognitive distortion needs to be challenged
or not when it comes to treatment. There have been recent analyses, which are three principle
types of treatments that are effective treatments for offenders. Marshall and Kingston states,
these treatments must cover the dynamics of features that offenders had shown or predict if
someone is going to offend (121). What Marshall and Kingston mean by this is offenders that
usually do this type of offence are either shaming themselves or they have really low self-esteem.
There needs to be treatments for these people in order to overcome these types of obstacles. It
has also been tested that low self-esteem doesnt cause a person to re-offend. What is meant is
that having either shamefulness or low self-esteem can interfere with change focused type
programs. Offenders need to receive proper treatments and counseling options for them to get
better. Marshall and Kingston are sure that cognitive distortion was not the cause for Child
molesters to re-offend, once one was done with treatment.
When sex offenders receive treatments and counseling they are able to start there
treatments and programs, the Bureau of Justice Awareness, Office of Justice Program, U.S.
Department of Justice, What are Sex Offender Programs/Strategies? In this second source it
explains what type of programs and strategies that are offered for sex offenders which includes
child molesters. The Bureau of Justice Awareness states, These programs and strategies are able
to use various approaches when it comes to sex offenders and help them from committing any
more sex offenses in the future. The treatments, which can help these child molesters, are just a
few. Some can get medications as part of their treatment plan which reduces the urge to have
sexual responses. Some receive psycho educational therapy treatment which involves having the
offender take accountability for their sexual offense, while also feeling empathy towards the

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victim. These people have another option when it comes to helping themselves recover from
their sickness, which is cognitive behavioral therapy; this is where they work on changing the
thought process when it comes to sexual offending.
While having these people go under psychological treatment, the Bureau of Justice states
besides treatments, there are also laws that are in effect to prevent sexual offenders from
offending later on. Some of the laws which are out there for these offenders are the sex offender
registration. They are required that they need to notify law enforcement where they work and
live, so that it is in the system. They also need to notify the community where they live and what
the sexual event or offense that had taken place. A person can also receive longer sentencing, if
they feel that the person is not ready to be released from being incarcerated. This is so that the
person can make sure when they are ready they can leave, with knowing that the treatments are
working so that they will not relapse.
While offends can receive longer sentencing , if they feel like they are not ready to be
back in society, goes along with my research was by Becerra Garcia and Juan Antonio from the
psychology department, University of Jaen, Spain of , A Controlled Study Of The Big Five
Personality Dimensions In Sex Offenders, Non-Sex Offenders And Non-Offenders: Relationship
With Offending Behavior And Childhood Abuse." This report goes into the five factors into
personalities. These factors are: agreeableness, openness, Neuroticism, Extra-vision and
Conscientiousness. Garcia and Antonio discuss each one of these types in detail. They describe
Neuroticism, findings where that convicted and incarcerated sex offenders against were
significantly higher ratings in Neuroticism and significantly lower in Extraversion and
Conscientiousness. When it came to regarding child molesters, there were higher ratings when
it came to agreeableness, and conscientiousness, which is consider to be on the mentally ill scale.

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They were also diagnosed with personality disorders. It has been determined that these child
molesters must have faced some sort of abuse themselves in order to develop these personality
disorders.
When it comes to learned behavior of being a child molester, according to Susan
McNichol and Katherine McGregor of Australias Child Protective Services at Finders Medical
Center, Exploring the Link Between Sexualized Behavior and Sexual Abuse in a Clinical
Setting. In this scholarly journal it indicates that some child sexual behavior is normal, while
other forms of sexual behavior are not considered normal. It was indicated that those who had
experienced sexual abuse were more likely to have more unusual sexual behaviors for their age
ranges. The reasoning is that if a child is exposed to adults having sexual intercourse and is
raised where parents walk around in the nude, they were more likely to display unusual sexual
behavior.
When a child is exposed to sexual content or sexual acts is goes along with,McNichol and
McGregor indicate that, the development of sexual behavior can occur when a child was
sexually abuse or witnessing a child being sexually abused. If a child had experience some sort
of sexual behavior in the pass, then that child will most likely continue the sexual behavior with
other children or when that child is an adult. However, some sexual behaviors of a child or
children were not able to be linked to sexual abuse. This can occur if a child had witness some
sort of traumatic event. This behavior can continue if the issue has not be addressed or if
treatment was never done for the child. In order for a child to cease this behavior with it is
known, then the child will most likely not continue this sexual behavior as an adult.
All these child molesters want to do is have a better life which ties into, Striving For A
Good Life: The Good Lives Model Applied To Released Child Molesters." by Gwenda M. Wills

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and Tony Ward of Victoria University of Wellington, School of Psychology, Wellington, New
Zealand. There is a model for child molesters that are currently incarcerated called the good lives
model, which aims for rehabilitation treatment for these people. These treatments are going to
consist of internal and external resources which can successfully help them from reoffending
again. The Good Live Model will go into their experience that is consistent to their personal
values, humans and nature. What is meant by this is that their life needs to have consistence with
the values they have, and they need to be able to be accepted into society.
In order for them to live a good life Wills and Ward states these sex offenders need to
have goals and their core commitments in place, while maintaining values that were evident to
the offence related actions that the offender had committed. The means these people need to be
accepted by society and they need to have a ways to move into a good living treatment plan. In
the Good Live Model isnt know if it actually is credible, also long as the offender continues
their rehabilitation programs once released.
In conclusion the research I was able to find when it came to the issue of child molesters,
the questions I had were, are their brains wired differently was this learned behavior. All the
sources I used were able to connect into one another statement, which was able to make each
topic transition in to each other. Authors : Antonio and Garcias, Kingston and Marshall and the
Bureau of Justice were all able to define what a persons wiring in their brain actually does when
it comes to sexual abusing a child. However, there should have been a little more information on
why this causes a person to have a desire to do this to a child. When it comes to the issues if this
is a learned behavior or is this cause by the miss wiring of their brain, some people argue that it
is very possible that a person can have both issues when it comes to being a child molester. This
topic that I chose was not only a topic that intrigued me, but it was also able to give me some

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insight on why a family member would do the same thing to me. It was able to give me in site on
why a person would have the desire to do this and what makes them want to do this to a child.

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Works Cited

Becerra-Garca, Juan Antonio, et al. "A Controlled Study Of The Big Five Personality
Dimensions In Sex Offenders, Non-Sex Offenders And Non-Offenders: Relationship
With Offending Behaviour And Childhood Abuse." Journal Of Forensic Psychiatry &
Psychology 24.2 (2013): 233-246. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
Bureau of Justice Assistance. What are Sex Offender Programs/Strategies?. Office of Judicial
Programs.Web.31 Oct.2014
Julie. Personal Interview. Northern Utah Counseling, in Clinton, Utah.

Marshall, W. L., L. E. Marshall, and Drew A. Kingston. "Are The Cognitive Distortions Of
Child Molesters In Need Of Treatment?." Journal Of Sexual Aggression 17.2 (2011):
118-129. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.
McGregor, Katherine J., and Susan McNichol. "Exploring The Link Between Sexualized
Behavior And Sexual Abuse In A Clinical Setting<FN>This Paper Was Presented In
Part At The 6Th Australasian Conference On Child Abuse And Neglect, Adelaide,
October 1997. </FN>." Child Abuse Review 8.5 (1999): 339-348. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
Willis, Gwenda M., and Tony Ward. "Striving For A Good Life: The Good Lives Model Applied
To Released Child Molesters." Journal Of Sexual Aggression 17.3 (2011): 290-303.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.

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Reflection
I need to revise this paper; I really was not sure where I needed to start with the revision
so I went to the writing center. There I was able to get help from one of the writing center staff
members which is a professor there at the campus. That person was able to go one on one over
what I needed to work on into making this a better and stronger paper. When I was going
through the paper, page by page I realized I was comma happy. I also did not know I didnt have
any sort of transition between each topic. I did not read my paper out loud as I was working on it
and I missed some grammatical errors. I relooked it over and seen I need to add more to certain
parts of my paper where I didnt really explain my self very well. So I knew now what I needed
to fix in order to make it sound like a proper paper. I also need to make sure that some of the
sources I used needed to be cited properly, in order for that citation to be recognized.
As I was rewriting my paper I took my time this time around. I realized where I had made
my errors and what parts I needed to reword. I also needed to look over my sentence structure,
because I that is something I really needed to work on in this paper. I added some additional
information that would be helpful to this paper. I was able to broaden my view point on this topic
and add words or statements where they need to be added. I think I was able to do a lot better on
this paper when it came to revising it for my class. Revising a paper is a thought process that a
person needs to take at a slower pace, instead of rushing into it and trying to get it done in a
hurry. I reread my paper after revising it and it makes a lot more sense then it did before when I
had written it the first time around for this English class.