How early sexual trauma relates to offense-supportive cognitions and vulnerability to sexual perpetration/victimization in adulthood (25-17884S)
Basic information
Investigator: Mgr. Kateřina Klapilová, Ph.D.
Main recipient: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Research period: 1/1/2025 - 31/12/2027
Total budget: 5,695,000 CZK
Supported by: Czech Science Foundation (GAČR)
Annotation
Individuals may be more likely to sexually offend if they possess offense-supportive cognitions. To treat these cognitions more effectively, it is important to understand how they develop and the function that they serve the individual. These cognitions may form during childhood in response to maltreatment, potentially to help the individual make sense of their own abuse. Most of what we know about the formation of offense-supportive cognitions comes from studies of male sex offenders. In a repeated representative online survey of general Czech population, the proposed project aims to better understand how offense-supportive cognitions relate childhood maltreatment, and whether individuals with these cognitions are more likely to perpetrate or be victimized by sexual violence. We also propose an experimental task to examine whether adult survivors who possess offense-supportive cognitions mount a reduced stress response to stimuli depicting child-adult sexual relations.