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Review
. 2024 Apr;26(4):134-141.
doi: 10.1007/s11920-024-01488-2. Epub 2024 Feb 6.

Attachment Theory and Sexual Offending: Making the Connection

Melissa D Grady  1 , Jamie Yoder  2
Affiliations
Review

Attachment Theory and Sexual Offending: Making the Connection

Melissa D Grady et al. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2024 Apr.

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 a number of 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. 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 styles; Attachment theory; Criminogenic risk factors; Sexual offending; Sexual violence; Therapeutic interventions.

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References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance
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    1. Bowlby J. Forty-four juvenile thieves: their characters and home lives. Int J Psycho-Anal. 1944;XXV:19–2.
    1. Coates SW, Bowlby J, Margaret SM. Their lives and theories. J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2004;52:571–1. Accessed May 10, 2016.
    1. Shilkret R, Shilkret CJ. Attachment theory. In: Berzoff J, Flanagan LM, Hertz P, editors. Inside out and outside in. 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield; 2016. p. 196–19.
    1. Bretherton I. The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Dev Psychol. 1992;28(5):759–75. Accessed 5/10/2016.

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