title: Psychosocial characteristics of criminals committing incest and other sex offenses: a survey in a Taiwanese prison.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial characteristics of criminals who had committed incest or other sexual offenses. The participants, 240 criminals serving sentences for sex offenses in a Taiwanese prison, were divided into two groups: incest offenders (20.4%) and other sex offenders (79.6%). The psychosocial characteristics taken into consideration included age, parental survival, education, marital status, previous crime records, drug and alcohol abuse, diagnosed mental disorders, and victim abuse at the time of the offense. After an analysis of the data, the authors concluded that even though incest offenders showed fewer mental disorders, they needed psychiatric treatment and that this treatment should be focused not only on their mental disorder and related symptoms but especially to correct their abnormal behavior. Also, attention should be given to their psychosocial characteristics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Military Kaohsiung General Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, No. 2 Chung Cheng 1st Road, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: For-Wey
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Lung
authors.forename: Shu-Fen
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003415:Crime / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007179:Incest / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011330:Prisons; D011584:Psychology; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology