Pip Pattison

Developmental risk factors for sexual offending

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to identify the general, common, and specific developmental risk factors for pedophilia, exhibitionism, rape, and multiple paraphilia, and to address five methodological issues observed in this area of research. METHOD This study involved 64 sex offenders and 33 nonsex, nondrug-related, and nonviolent property offenders. The group of 64 sex offenders was further divided into eight subgroups, some of which overlapped in memberships because of multiple diagnoses. To overcome the methodological problem associated with overlapping group memberships, a special approach involving comparisons of sets of logistic regression analyses was adopted. Offenders were clinically assessed for evidence of paraphilias, and their adverse childhood experiences were measured by a battery of tests. RESULTS Childhood Emotional Abuse and Family Dysfunction, Childhood Behavior Problems, and Childhood Sexual Abuse were found to be general developmental risk factors for paraphilias. Furthermore, Childhood Emotional Abuse and Family Dysfunction was found to be a common developmental risk factor for pedophilia, exhibitionism, rape, or multiple paraphilia. Additional analyses revealed that childhood emotional abuse contributed significantly as a common developmental risk factor compared to family dysfunction. Besides, Childhood Sexual Abuse was found to be a specific developmental risk factor for pedophilia. CONCLUSIONS The study has supported the value of conceptualizing certain childhood adversities as developmental risk factors for paraphilic behaviors. The role of childhood emotional abuse as an important developmental risk contributor, and the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and pedophilia are of theoretical significance. Furthermore, the results have significant implications for the prevention of childhood abuse and treatment of sex offenders.

Networks and geography: Modelling community network structures as the outcome of both spatial and network processes

This paper focuses on how to extend the exponential random graph models to take into account the geographical embeddedness of individuals in modelling social networks. We develop a hierarchical set of nested models for spatially embedded social networks, in which, following Butts (2002), an interaction function between tie probability and Euclidean distance between nodes is introduced. The models are illustrated by an empirical example from a study of the role of social networks in understanding spatial clustering in unemployment in Australia. The analysis suggests that a spatial effect cannot solely explain the emergence of organised network structure and it is necessary to include both spatial and endogenous network effects in the model.

Hepatitis C transmission and treatment as prevention – The role of the injecting network

BACKGROUND The hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic is a major health issue; in most developed countries it is driven by people who inject drugs (PWID). Injecting networks powerfully influence HCV transmission. In this paper we provide an overview of 10 years of research into injecting networks and HCV, culminating in a network-based approach to provision of direct-acting antiviral therapy. METHODS Between 2005 and 2010 we followed a cohort of 413 PWID, measuring HCV incidence, prevalence and injecting risk, including network-related factors. We developed an individual-based HCV transmission model, using it to simulate the spread of HCV through the empirical social network of PWID. In addition, we created an empirically grounded network model of injecting relationships using exponential random graph models (ERGMs), allowing simulation of realistic networks for investigating HCV treatment and intervention strategies. Our empirical work and modelling underpins the TAP Study, which is examining the feasibility of community-based treatment of PWID with DAAs. RESULTS We observed incidence rates of HCV primary infection and reinfection of 12.8 per 100 person-years (PY) (95%CI: 7.7-20.0) and 28.8 per 100 PY (95%CI: 15.0-55.4), respectively, and determined that HCV transmission clusters correlated with reported injecting relationships. Transmission modelling showed that the empirical network provided some protective effect, slowing HCV transmission compared to a fully connected, homogenous PWID population. Our ERGMs revealed that treating PWID and all their contacts was the most effective strategy and targeting treatment to infected PWID with the most contacts the least effective. CONCLUSION Networks-based approaches greatly increase understanding of HCV transmission and will inform the implementation of treatment as prevention using DAAs.

The uses of nouns and deixis in discourse production in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract Deixis is a linguistic tool derived from the Greek word for ‘pointing’ that handles reference in relation to the immediate communicative context. This study investigated the uses of deictic (spatial vs. person) and nouns, using multiple discourse tasks in 26 dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) patients and 26 demographically matched healthy elderly. The chief research findings were: (1) the effects of the DAT process differed across the spatial vs. person deictic forms and (2) the discourse task under study, hence the communicative context, determined the nature and degree of group differences as well as the relationship between discourse variables.

Evidence, Inference, and the “Rejection” of the Significance Test

Hammond (1996) reiterates Cohens (1994) “attack” on simple-minded interpretations of significance tests and recommends the use of other statistical methods (including effect size measures and confidence intervals) in their place. Hammonds laudable aim is to inform the Australian psychology community of the resurgence of this debate in the US, and to open these issues to overdue debate here. In this paper we take the stand that the issues underlying some of the criticisms in this debate have not been well drawn. In particular, we believe that the fundamental distinction between the interpretation of probability as relative frequency and its interpretation as evidentiary-belief—a distinction underlying the history of confusion about statistical inference in psychology and elsewhere—is still not receiving the major focus it requires in this debate. We argue that these interpretive issues are just as relevant for confidence intervals as for significance tests and that the problem of inference—that of specifying how sample data provide evidence about unknown population parameters—is not a purely mathematical one. As a result, such issues should not be left to the “statistical types” among us; rather, psychologists who wish to perform or evaluate research and the conclusions drawn from it need to understand the different approaches that have been taken to the problem. Indeed, we see the encouragement—and liberty—to re-think the role of data analysis in the interpretation of our research findings as the most positive aspect of the debate.

Language Use in Normal Ageing and Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT) often presents with language decline characterised by initial word-finding and naming difficulties. Research also indicates that DAT patients display discourse difficulties, which are different from the subtle changes observed in normal ageing. This paper is a brief report on a research project investigating discourse, specifically the use of language, in normal ageing and DAT. Rather than convey detailed research findings, the report presents a brief literature review from which research questions are derived. The paper concludes that the study of discourse is essential to understanding language changes in older adults.