Abstract: Recent Developments in Typological Systems for Rapists and Child Molesters

Version 3 of the Massachusetts Treatment Center typologies for rapists and child molesters (MTC:R3 and MTC:CM3) remain the only empirically validated typological systems for these different age-preference sexual offender groups. Despite this unique status, significant structural problems were identified in each system (e.g., Knight, 1992; 1999) that required additional empirical data for their resolution. In addition, neither system mapped well onto existing etiological models for rape and child molestation (e.g., Daversa & Knight, 2007; Knight & Sims-Knight, 2003, 2004, 2011). Recent restructurings of the two typologies have addressed these problems. These revised theoretical systems will be presented and their implications for treatment and assessment discussed.

Dr. Raymond Knight is the Mortimer Gryzmish Professor of Human Relations at Brandeis University. He has been doing research on sexual aggression for the last thirty-five years. He has developed and validated taxonomic models for rapists and child molesters and has completed a 25-year follow-up of sex offenders released from the Massachusetts Treatment Center. He is currently validating the Multidimensional Inventory of Development, Sex, and Aggression (the MIDSA), which is a computerized contingency-based inventory that provides a comprehensive assessment of multiple critical areas of adaptation for juvenile and adult sexual offenders. Recently he has been involved in taxometric analyses of psychopathy, hypersexuality, and the proposed psychopathic sexual taxon. He has served as president of both the Society for Research in Psychopathology and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.