Understanding Offending

A key area of research within the FCRG involves understanding the factors and psychological processes involved in the commission of offending behaviours, including sexual, violent, and acquisitive offending. This research involves samples of incarcerated individuals, as well as members of community using both established and newly devised self-report and indirect measures.

Recent studies and articles published on these topics include:

• Willis, C., & Bartels, R. M. (2022). Investigating the phenomenology and plausibility of sexual fantasies and their relationship with behavioural enactment and motivation. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 1-18.

• Onwuegbusi, T., Hermens, F., & Hogue, T. (2022). Data-driven group comparisons of eye fixations to dynamic stimuli. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 75(6), 989-1003.– Open Access

• King-Parker, M., Bartels, R. M., Onwuegbusi, T., & Parke, A. (2022). The Burglary Cognitive Distortions Scale: Its association with burglary proclivity and other key variables. Psychology, Crime & Law, 1-26.

• Rossegger, A., Bartels, R., Endrass, J., Borchard, B., & Singh, J. (2021). High risk sexual fantasies and sexual offending: An overview of fundamentals and interventions. Sexual Offending: Theory, Research, and Prevention, 16, 1-16. – Open Access

• Deehan, E. T., & Bartels, R. M. (2021). Somnophilia: Examining its various forms and associated constructs. Sexual Abuse, 33(2), 200-222.

• Merdian, H. L., Perkins, D. E., Dustagheer, E., & Glorney, E. (2020). Development of a case formulation model for individuals who have viewed, distributed, and/or shared child sexual exploitation material. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 64(10-11), 1055-1073.

• Soldino, V., Merdian, H. L., Bartels, R. M., & Bradshaw, H. K. (2020). Implicit theories of child sexual exploitation material offenders: Cross-cultural validation of interview findings. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 64(4), 315-334.

• Curtis, A., McVilly, K.R., Day, A., Lindsay, W.R., Taylor, J.L. and Hogue, T.E. (2019), “The characteristics and treatment needs of fire setters with intellectual disability: descriptive data and comparisons between offence type”, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities and Offending Behaviour, 10(4), 82-88. 

• Bartels, R. M., Lehmann, R. J., & Thornton, D. (2019). Validating the utility of the Wilson Sex Fantasy Questionnaire with men who have sexually offended against children. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 206. – Open Access

Also, a book related to this research area was published by Ross Bartels (& Leam Craig), entitled ‘Sexual Deviance‘ – covering theory and research on paraphilic interests linked to sexual offending.