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Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment
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The Implicit Theories of Rapists: What Convicted Offenders Tell Us

Devon L. L. Polaschek

University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand, devon.polaschek{at}vuw.ac.nz

Theresa A. Gannon

University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Twenty years of research into sex offenders' cognitive distortions has primarily focused on the measurement of distortions rather than on theorizing about the underlying structures that are responsible for generating and organizing them. Recently T. Ward (2000; T. Ward & T. Keenan, 1999) suggested that offenders have underlying causal theories about themselves, their victims, and broader categories of people (e.g., women and children), and that these implicit theories enable post hoc explanation as well as prediction of people's actions and reactions. D. L. L. Polaschek and T. Ward (2002) examined rape-related attitudinal scales and constructed and outlined five core implicit theories. Here, we examined whether evidence for these five theories was also found in offense process descriptions generated from interviews with 37 imprisoned rapists. Coding of the descriptions revealed support for all five theories.

Key Words: implicit theories • schemas • rapists' cognitive distortions.

Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 16, No. 4, 299-314 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/107906320401600404
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