New paradigms in theory building and offender assessment: the pictorial modified Stroop task and the Implicit Association Test

Overview

There is a growing trend in research relating to sexual offending to look beyond the surface cognitive products of offenders and to attempt to understand the cognitive structures and processes that underpin offending behaviour. Theory building and the application of a new understanding of these structures and processes will be hampered without valid and reliable paradigms with which to test hypotheses regarding the cognitions of offenders. Indirect measures offer potential as adjuncts to more established methods of exploring the cognitive processes of individuals. This chapter focuses on two measures in particular; the IAT and the pictorial modified Stroop task. The chapter summarises my own findings with these two tasks before discussing the implications of these findings for broader research involving indirect cognitive tasks applied to sexual offending.