Article Critique Paper on The Childhood Experiences of
Incarcerated Male Child Sexual Abusers

An Assignment Submitted to Dr. Karena T. Valkyrie for

Orientation To Psychological Studies

PSY 2230

4/03/13

Madeline Holberg

Troy University

Literature

Linda Garrett (2010) sought to gain a more thorough understanding of the reasons behind children becoming sexual abusers as adults. Research indicates that childhood experiences contribute to one’s self-concept and the notion that one is either a good or bad person (Chen and Boucher as cited in Garrett, 2010). If the child is exposed to violence, constant threat, and psychological or emotional abuse, a distorted self-concept develops and contributes to the casual properties of the person’s adult behavior or functioning (Garrett et. al. 2010). Research has suggested children who experience violent and sexual abuse are at a higher risk to repeat these inappropriate behaviors as adults (Garrett, 2010). To begin to understand the extent of the problem, this study focused on the childhood experiences of incarcerated male child sexual abusers (Garrett, 2010).
Literature Critique This article was empirical. I found the literature section to be long. Some of the references used were more than ten years old. However, the literature section was clearly explained and thorough.
Methods
Participants Participants were chosen from a Southeastern prison if the psychological examiner found they met certain criteria (Garrett, 2010). They were included if they had been convicted of sexual abuse of a child younger than thirteen years of age, had not murdered their victims, had an IQ greater than eighty, were eighty years or older at the time of the crime, and did not deny guilt (Garrett, 2010). Ten prisoners volunteered for the study and eight of the ten reported for the interview (Garrett, 2010). Before the