MCMl-III personality typologies of incarcerated male child molesters.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Psychology
Degree name
Doctor of Philosophy
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2017
Authors
Basharati, Zhiyan
Abstract

Sub-typing sexual offenders according to personality types may be useful in developing and implementing treatment rehabilitation. The purpose of this research was to examine personality subscales by using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III; Millon, 1997) among convicted male sexual offenders from one group: child molesters, in- order to gain insight into and identify possible personality clusters of child molesters. This study used a sample of 358 male sexual offenders against children who completed the Kia Marama treatment programme between 1993 and 2007. The subjects MCMI-III base rate scores was divided into four groups using k-means cluster analysis. Three studies were carried out. Study one’s main goal was to establish the validity of the four MCMI-III clusters that was initially proposed by the previous study of Wales (2005). The present study cluster centroids were significantly correlated (r=.72) with those reported by Wales (2005). The second study goal was to use the identified four MCMI-III personality cluster profiles and compare them on a range of psychometric self-reports measures administered at Kia Marama prior to and following treatment. Pre-treatment psychometric self-report measures and clusters suggested that child molesters who came through the Kia Marama pre-treatment programme reported difficulties. Study three’s aim was to examine the relationship between the MCMI-III subscales base rate scores and specifically sexual recidivism as well as overall ASRS scores. Findings showed significant relationships between the MCMI-III subscales and sexual recidivism as well as overall Automated Sexual Recidivism Scale (ASRS; Skelton, Riley, Wales, & Vess, 2006). Further in study three, we used the identified four MCMI-III subscale clusters centroids that were identified in study 2 and combined them into high and low risk clusters. The high and low risk MCMI-III clusters were able to significantly predict sexual recidivism.

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