Risk Domain 3: Problematic Sexuality
Below are the report responses of an individual who has sexually offended. First, his MIDSA responses for each subcomponent of the problematic sexuality domain are presented as they appear in the report followed by an interpretation in red of each subcomponent. At the end of the subcomponents is an overall integrative interpretation in red.
The respondent reports moderately high experiences of feeling compelled to do specific kinds of sexual behavior (> 92% of ACCs* and > 62% of ASOs* on Sexual Compulsivity). In contrast, he does not report high levels of any paraphilic fantasies or behaviors. Only his level of fetishistic behavior and fantasies is slightly, but not significantly, elevated relative to ACCs (> 60%) and ASOs (> 64%).
Description of the Pornography Use Scales
Early exposure to pornography. This scale consists of five items. Respondents who scored high on this scale were exposed to sexual materials during childhood. The kinds of materials included X-rated movies, nude women, and sex acts between adults.
Conventional heterosexual pornography. This scale consists of ten items. Respondents who score high on this scale used conventional heterosexual pornography as teenagers (13 -18) and as adults. The kinds of materials they used included X-rated movies, viewing nude women or sex acts between adults, and going to strip/live sex shows. They also reported whether they masturbated to these materials.
Homosexual pornography. This scale consists of two items reporting use of pornography of nude men during their childhood, teenage years, and adulthood.
Child pornography. This scale consists of four items. Respondents who score high on this scale have used pornography depicting nude children and sex acts involving children. This use occurred during their childhood, teenage years, and adulthood.
Violent pornography. This scale consists of four items. Respondents who score high on this scale have used pornography depicting bondage and physical harm to victims during sex. This use occurred during their childhood, teenage years and adulthood.
The respondent reports that he had high Early Exposure to Pornography (> 99% of ACCs and > 90% of ASOs) and is currently extremely high on his exposure to Violent Pornography (> 99% of both ACCs and ASOs). His use of Conventional Heterosexual Pornography is reported to be moderate (> 82% of ACCs and 73% of ASOs), and he claims low exposure to both Homosexual and Child Pornography.
Offense Planning Scales
The offense planning section is given to those who admit to (a) manipulating or forcing someone to have sex, (b) being charged or convicted of a sex crime, or (c) having sexual contact with a child or with a teen when they were over 16 years of age. The MIDSA includes four factor scales that describe offense planning and fantasy. Because community samples cannot provide valid data about offense planning, the respondent’s scores are reported as percentiles.
Intimacy-seeking sexual fantasies. This scale consists of seventeen items that assess fantasies in which the respondent ignores the agonistic nature of coercive sexual behavior and fantasies that his sexual overtures will elicit a positive response. He fantasies both about what he will say and do sexually to a woman and what she will say and feel and do sexually to him during the offense encounter. The respondent’s score was higher than 59 percent of a sample of juveniles who offended sexually.
Aggressive/violent fantasies. This scale contains seven items that tap the respondent’s fantasies about physically harming, frightening, and even killing someone during nonconsensual sex. The respondent’s score was higher than 70 percent of a sample of juveniles who offended sexually.
Explicit Planning. This factor consists of seven items that indicate that the respondent has thought specifically about committing an offense, including who the victim would be and where he would commit the offense. The respondent’s score was higher than 76 percent of a sample of juveniles who offended sexually.
Eluding Apprehension. This scale contains five items that assess the respondent’s plans to elude apprehension after sexually coercive behavior. High scores indicate high post-offense planning. The respondent’s score was higher than 89 percent of a sample of juveniles who offended sexually.
The respondent reported moderate to high levels on all four of the offense planning fantasies factors, from his lowest on Intimacy Seeking Sexual Fantasies (> 59% of ASOs) to his highest on Eluding Apprehension (> 89% of ASOs).
Overview of the Problematic Sexualization Domain
This offender reported no to low involvement in paraphilic fantasies and behaviors. It is interesting to note that in his sexual drive domain scales (not presented here for this respondent) he had reported high Sexual Preoccupation, but low sexual behavior. In his problematic sexuality domain, he reported that in his sexual fantasies and behavior he feels compelled to do sexual behaviors and have sexual fantasies that are ego dystonic. Moreover, his extremely high exposure to violent pornography is concerning. His moderately high offense planning fantasies of hurting victims during a potential sexual encounter and his high fantasies about how he would elude capture should definitely be grist for the therapeutic mill. Also worth exploring therapeutically are the circumstances of his early exposure to pornography. Other sections of the MIDSA that might enlighten these issues are his responses to the sexualize violence domain and his reporting on his early sexual experiences.
* ACC = Adult Community Control Group.
**ASO = Adults who have sexually offended.