Female sexual-offenders: personality pathology as a mediator of the relationship between childhood sexual abuse history and sexual abuse perpetration against others.
OBJECTIVE
The goal was to examine, in an all female sample, possible mechanisms for the relationship between a history of childhood sexual abuse and the likelihood of perpetrating sexual abuse as an adult. It was hypothesized that Borderline and Antisocial Personality Disorder tendencies would mediate the relationship between these two forms of abuse.


METHODS
One hundred forty two female participants (61 sex-offenders and 81 non-sex offenders) were recruited from a woman's prison in the Midwest. The participants completed measures that included a childhood history of sexual abuse, socially desirable responding, primary and secondary psychopathy, and Borderline Personality Disorder tendencies.


RESULTS
Participants in the sexual-offender group reported more frequent instances of childhood sexual abuse (p<.05, M=16.4, SD=7.2) than participants in the non-sex offender group (M=12.2, SD=7.7). Consistent with past research, childhood sexual abuse was related to Borderline Personality Disorder tendencies (r=.36, p<.01). However, discriminant function analyses did not reveal support for our mediational hypotheses. Finally, the results indicated that participants in the sexual-offender group experienced childhood sexual abuse for a greater duration of time (p<.05, M=27.8, SD=20.5 months) than participants in the non-sex offender group (M=16.6, SD=10.4).


CONCLUSIONS
This study replicated previous research conducted on all male samples suggesting that the nature of the sexual abuse suffered in childhood is an important variable in predicting future sexual abuse perpetration.
Christopher
Kelly
K
Department of Psychology, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469-1430, USA.
Lutz-Zois
Catherine J
CJ
Reinhardt
Amanda R
AR
D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires