The Self-Regulation Model of Sexual Offending: A Descriptive Study Exploring the Offence Pathways of Ageing Child Sexual Offenders in a New Zealand Context

Abstract

Research has indicated an increase in the average-age of incarcerated offenders and that of these inmates, a disproportionate number are imprisoned for child sexual offences. Despite this increase, little is known about the offence characteristics and pathways to offending of this newly identified older group. This has implications for the treatment of these offenders in that current treatment models, namely, the Relapse Prevention Model ([RPM]; Pithers, Marques, Gibat, & Marlatt, 1983), may be insufficient in targeting the unique needs of older child sexual offenders. The Self-Regulation Model (SRM) of the relapse process (Ward & Hudson, 1998) is an offence process model, which has been developed and empirically validated on general sexual offender populations and more recently, specific sexual offender populations. The SRM is a nine-stage process with four pathways to offending that represent an amalgamation of offence-related goals (avoidance versus approach) and self-regulation strategies (passive/automatic versus active/explicit) employed to achieve the goal(s). This thesis used secondary analysis to explore the applicability of the SRM to a sample of ten male, child sexual offenders (CSOs) aged fifty-years and older, who were participating in a comprehensive cognitive-behavioural treatment programme during a prison sentence. Results supported the content validity of the model. In all, nine child sexual offenders were classified as belonging to one of the four pathway groups identified by Ward and Hudson‟s self-regulation model of the offence process. Further analyses indicated that variability in the two approach pathways (i.e., approach-automatic, and approach-explicit) was differentially associated with offence/offender characteristics. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions are made for the direction of future research.