What were they thinking? The cognition of women who sexually abuse children

This research investigates women child molesters' (WCMs) cognition. In Study 1, WCMs are asked to self-report a preliminary picture of their offence-supportive beliefs via interview. Study 2 will examine whether these beliefs really are stored in WCMs' minds. In brief, WCMs and non-WCMs are presented with a series of words to group. Research shows that people are faster at putting words into a group if the group name fits with that person's beliefs. So, if WCMs think that children want sex with adults, they should find it easier and quicker to sort words into a children-sex category compared to non-WCMs. In Study 3, I examine whether the beliefs from Studies 1 and 2 really affect how WCMs interpret children's behaviour. WCMs and non-WCMs are given ambiguous statements to read (eg, "A young boy is staring at you") and then after a delay are shown a similar statement that has been changed. This statement will either support abuse (eg, "A young boy is staring at you provocatively") or not (eg., "A young boy is staring at you innocently"). If WCMs originally interpret the ambiguous statement in an abusive way, they will recognise abusive statements more readily and quickly than non-WCMs.

本研究针对女性儿童性侵者（Women Child Molesters，WCMs）的认知特征展开探究。在研究1中，研究者通过访谈要求WCMs自我报告其支持性侵犯罪的认知信念的初步概况。研究2将验证上述信念是否确实留存于WCMs的认知体系当中。简言之，研究人员将向WCMs与非女性儿童性侵者（non-WCMs）呈现一系列词汇，要求其完成分组归类任务。已有研究表明，当组别名称与个体自身信念契合时，个体将词汇归入对应组别的反应速度会更快。因此，若WCMs持有“儿童愿意与成人发生性行为”的认知，则相较于非WCMs，他们将词汇归入儿童性相关类别的过程会更为轻松快捷。在研究3中，笔者将验证研究1与研究2中提及的认知信念，是否确实会影响WCMs对儿童行为的解读方式。研究人员会向WCMs与非WCMs呈现一段模糊表述供其阅读（例如：“一名小男孩正盯着你”），在经过一段延迟时段后，再向其展示一段经过修改的相似表述。该修改后的表述要么带有性侵倾向（例如：“一名小男孩正带有挑逗意味地盯着你”），要么则无此倾向（例如：“一名小男孩正天真无邪地盯着你”）。若WCMs最初以带有性侵倾向的视角解读该模糊表述，则相较于非WCMs，他们将能更轻松、更快速地识别出带有性侵倾向的表述。