Differences and similarities between violent offenders and sex offenders

Objectives: To investigate differences and similarities between violent off enders and two types of sex offenders, rapists and child molesters, in term s of their personality, the nature of the victim, the role of alcohol, and their confession to their crime. Method: Thirty-six adult sex offenders, 23 child molesters, and 32 violent offenders were compared on personality measures, their relationship with th e victim, the presence of alcohol intoxication, their confession rate and r etraction at trial, and the reasons they gave for having confessed to the p olice. Results: Child molesters and adult sex offenders (rapists) were significant ly more introverted than the violent offenders. The child molesters had hig her social desirability scores than the other groups, they tended to assaul t relatives and friends, they were rarely intoxicated while committing the offense, and they had strong internal need to confess to the police. Rapist s and violent offenders were more commonly intoxicated during the commissio n of the offense: the former tended to assault acquaintances, where violent offenders most commonly assaulted strangers. Exactly half of the rapists r etracted their confession when the case went to trial, in contrast none of the other offenders retracted their confession. Conclusions: The results show that there are significant differences as wel l as similarities between the three groups of offenders, which have implica tions for assessment and treatment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.