Intimacy, Loneliness, and Attachment Style in Sexual Offenders

Abstract

Recent research suggests that offenders have difficulties in successfully establishing adult relationships. The authors have developed an attachment-based model that relates offending styles and interpersonal goals, and they have provided some preliminary evidence for it at the level of attachment style and offender type. Here the authors examined offender type, attachment style, and some relevant interpersonal variables. Although only the offender-type differences related to anger, most of the attachment model's predictions were supported. Preoccupiedly and fearfully attached men were the most lonely, whereas fearfully and dismissingly attached men scored highest on fear of intimacy, anger expression, and anger suppression. Fearful men reported the greatest hostility toward women, whereas dismissing men were most accepting of rape myths. The relationship between attachment style and social competency issues appears more fundamental than that between offender type and social competency. As such, approaching the social dysfunctions associated with offending from an attachment perspective has considerable clinical utility.