Featured Article
Article Title
Attachment Theory and Sexual Offending: Making the Connection
Authors
Melissa D. Grady; Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Ave, NE, Washington DC 20064, USA
Jamie Yoder; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA
Abstract
Purpose of Review: The purpose of this review is to discuss how attachment theory can be applied to explain sexual violence. Specifically, it discusses how the development of certain risk factors contributes to these behaviors and how attachment-based models can be used to address this issue through prevention and therapeutic interventions.
Recent Findings: Recent research demonstrates that individuals who commit sexual offenses have higher rates of insecure attachment styles and that these styles are associated with several criminogenic risk factors associated with sexual offending. Such risk factors include cognitive processing difficulties, affect dysregulation, and challenges in interpersonal relationships, among others. Fortunately, treatment interventions have been shown to foster more secure attachment styles and reduce these risk factors.
Summary: Attachment theory is a viable theory to both understand and intervene with those who have committed sexual violence to reduce the risk factors associated with sexual violence.
Keywords
Attachment theory; sexual offending; sexual violence; therapeutic interventions; attachment styles; criminogenic risk factors
Summary of Research
“Researchers, clinicians, family members, and individuals have sought to answer the question, “Why does someone commit a sexual offense?” To answer this question, numerous theories have been applied to sexual offending in hopes of designing preventive programs, utilizing effective treatment strategies, and offering some understanding to those who have had personal experience with sexual abuse. Attachment theory has emerged as a dominant theoretical framework to explain sexual offending and can offer guidance for clinicians who work therapeutically with this population. This paper will provide a brief overview of attachment theory and the research that has been conducted using this theory with people who have committed sexual crimes. In addition, we offer some guidance for clinicians as to how attachment principles can be used in prevention and treatment focused on reducing sexual offending” (p. 134).
“Bowlby categorized three primary ways children organize their behavior in relation to their caregiver’s attunement and responsiveness. Bowlby referred to these categories as attachment styles. Of these organized attachment styles, one of them is secure and two are insecure. A secure attachment occurs when a child consistently experiences the caregiver as nurturing, responsive, and attuned to their needs and will develop an IWM that the world is safe and that others will be responsive to them. These individuals have relatively stable self-esteem, higher self-regulation, and more stable interpersonal relationships over the lifespan. Those with insecure attachments have had early relational experiences that lack attunement or responsiveness. Two clusters of insecure attachment are avoidant and ambivalent” (p. 135).
“Many behaviors that stem from insecure attachment styles are considered to be criminogenic or risk factors associated with sexual offending that then become treatment targets designed to reduce criminal behavior. Empirical risk factors for general criminal behavior (not specific to sexual offending) include elements of antisocial traits, beliefs, and attitudes as well as systemic factors including family, peers, occupation. Empirical risk factors for sexual offending include additional components such as aggression, empathy, regulatory processes, mental health difficulties, impulsivity, and hypersexuality. These criminogenic risk factors linked with sexual offending are also associated with insecure attachments, as they include myriad behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal challenges or deficits” (p. 135).
“Despite researchers exploring the consequences of insecure attachments among those who commit sexual crimes, theories around sexual offending have not historically linked attachment to childhood adversity. The high rates of insecure attachments among those who commit sexual crimes may stem from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), including neglect and abuse, which are major contributors to the insecure attachments and sexual offending alike…There is some evidence to suggest that the connection between childhood adversity, insecure attachments, and problematic sexual offending may be better understood by alternate intermediary influences; attachment problems may create difficulties in behavioral or emotional regulation or in establishing intimacy” (p. 136).
“ In order to help explain the potential developmental pathway to sexual offending, Grady and colleagues proposed a model that links attachment, trauma, and sexual offending. It draws on the research … that notes the similarities between the criminogenic risk factors associated with insecure attachments that often stem from experiences of childhood adversity. Grady’s theoretical model as shown in Fig. 1 posits that a formative experience explaining youth SV is childhood adversity—considered as incidents including poverty, abuse, neglect, uncaring caregiver interactions, witnessing abuse or violence, and exposures to community violence. This theory suggests that these childhood experiences can create risks for co-occurring adverse outcomes like insecure caregiver attachments, trauma symptoms or traumatic stress, and regulation difficulties. Subsequently, these experiences present risk for the onset and course of problematic sexual behaviors” (p. 136).
Translating Research into Practice
Primary prevention: “Attachment theory clearly demonstrates that those individuals with secure attachments are most likely to be successful in multiple domains of their lives. Therefore, prevention programming should focus on strengthening the relationship between infants/children and their caregivers to build healthy and strong attachments. This can be done through helping caregivers learn positive parenting skills through early intervention programs immediately after the birth of a child. Such programs have demonstrated positive results in a number of domains, including maternal life course outcomes, child cognitive outcomes, and parent behaviors and skills. These outcomes have been seen to have a direct effect on attachment, creating more secure attachments among participants” (p. 137).
Secondary prevention: “For caregivers who need support later in a child’s life, there are effective intervention programs, such as Parent Child Interaction Therapy, that help caregivers develop effective parenting skills. Such programs have been found to significantly improve child-caregiver interactions and improve child outcomes across diverse populations. Other programs, such as Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT), actually target the attachment relationship and focus specifically on helping to repair any attachment disruptions by building an empathic and attuned relationship between the caregiver and the child. Through such programs, children have been shown to increase their empathy, while also decreasing behavioral difficulties. As noted previously, childhood adversity may play a significant role in contributing to attachment disruptions and/or contribute to various criminogenic risk factors associated with sexual offending. Therefore, it is critical that when a trauma has occurred, children are provided with effective treatments to help them to reduce the impact that the traumatic event can have on their lives. The most effective intervention for children who have experienced trauma is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)” (p. 137).
Tertiary prevention: “For those working within treatment programs with individuals who have committed sexual crimes (SOTX), practitioners can use the concepts of attachment theory to create more secure attachments among clients and in turn reduce the criminogenic risk factors associated with sexual offending. Research has now demonstrated that it is possible in the context of relationships, both personal and therapeutic, to change attachment styles and move from insecure to more secure ones. In fact, there are studies that have shown that within therapeutic relationships, adults in SOTX have also demonstrated a reduction in certain risk factors, such as emotional dysregulation, as they became more securely attached. Given this research, SOTX clinicians should seek to develop strong therapeutic relationships that seek to repair earlier attachment disruptions” (p. 137).
Other Interesting Tidbits for Researchers and Clinicians
“While TIC principles can and should be incorporated into therapeutic models of intervention, organizations that adopt a TIC approach aim to infuse these principles into all aspects of the organization, including the physical space and how all staff (including non-clinicians) are trained, as well as the policies and practices of the organization. As such, an organization that adopts a TIC approach aims to create a culture within the entire organization that is consistent with the four key principles of TIC. In this way, TIC takes a universal approach, meaning that every organization and practitioner can foster a culture that aims to ensure that every aspect of the services provided adheres to the four principles as outlined by TIC. Given the large body of research that demonstrates the significant trauma histories of those who have committed sexual offenses and how the Grady et al. model outlines the compounding impacts of trauma, including the development of insecure attachments; the consideration of TIC principles in treatment facilities or community practice settings becomes an ethical and public safety imperative to appropriate responses to critical risks. Therefore, clinicians should consider adopting a TIC approach that provides the foundation for their clinical work on which their attachment-specific interventions can take place” (p . 138).
