An Exploratory Evaluation of the Contribution of Personality and Childhood Sexual Victimization to the Development of Sexually Abusive Behavior

Abstract

Scores on the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) were collected from two samples of incarcerated delinquent males: 74 adjudicated sexual abusers and 53 nonsexual abusers. In comparison to non-sexually abusive youths, a larger percentage of the sexually abusive youths indicated a history of childhood sexual victimization. The scores were then entered into a logistic regression to assess the contribution of personality characteristics to a social learning “victim-to-victimizer” etiological model. After controlling for time in treatment, the model correctly classified 76.6% of the youths. The variables that contributed significantly to the social learning model were the CTQ Sexual Abuse and Physical Neglect scales and the Submissive and Forceful scales on the MACI. Research and treatment implications of these findings are discussed.