Problems of Forensic Sciences 2011 Vol. 86 (LXXXVI) 127-139
Mental representation of people by child sex offenders’
Aleksandra Głowińska1, Monika Zielona-Jenek2
1Interio Psychological Centre, Poznań, Poland
2Institute of Psychology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
Streszczenie
Disturbances in the course of cognitive processes, known as cognitive distortions, are considered as an important determinant of paedophilic behaviours. The occurrence of cognitive distortions is caused by, among other things, specific forms of cognitive schemas, deformed representations, created as a result of atypical and unfavourable experiences of an individual. Representations that seem to have particular meaning in the context of child sexual abuse are: images of a man, woman, child and the relations between them. These cognitive schemas of men condemned for sexual crimes against children and men in a control group were analysed in the conducted research with use of human figure drawings. The results confirm the existence of a series of differences in the executed drawings, and allow us to draw conclusions about the specific form of the analysed cognitive schemas.
Słowa kluczowe
Child sexual abuse; Cognitive distortions; Cognitive schema; Human figure drawing.