Gene Abel

Last updated
Gene Gordon Abel
Occupation Psychiatrist [1]
Known for Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest [2]
Diana Screening [3]

Gene Gordon Abel is an American psychiatrist and controversial clinician. [4] He is a couple's counselor and also works with men and boys suspected of sexual deviancy. [4] He is the creator of the Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest (AASI), a sex offender assessment tool [2] that has been considered unreliable by independent studies [5] and inadmissible in court in various jurisdictions. [6] [7] He also designed a screening test called the Diana Screen, to be used, e.g., to screen job applicants for deviant sexual tendencies – a test which has been similarly criticized as having dubious scientific value.

Contents

Career

Abel was previously a professor of medicine at the Columbia University School of Medicine, and currently teaches at the Morehouse School of Medicine and the Emory University School of Medicine. [8] He is the medical director of the Behavioral Medicine Institute of Atlanta. [8]

Awards and recognitions

Abel is a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research and a past president of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (1981–82). [8] [9] He was the recipient of a 1990 Masters and Johnson Award of the Society for Sex Therapy and Research, a 1991 Significant Achievement Award of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, [8] and a 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. [10]

Lack of known scientific basis for assessment test methodology

Abel has been criticized for having no clear, well-accepted scientific basis for his assessment process. Abel wrote a report called "The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation Prevention Study" in a chapter of a 2001 self-published book he wrote called The Stop Child Molestation Book (coauthored with Nora Harlow, using the self-publication service Xlibris), and the Abel Assessment test is based on findings of a study associated with that report. However, the report was never subject to peer review and was not published in any professional journal, and it provides no detailed description of his testing methodology for scientific study and independent verification. [11]

Abel is also said to have exaggerated various statistics in order to support his conclusions and methodology. For example, in the early 1990s he announced that he had figures suggesting that sex offenders commonly have multiple paraphilias. However, a 1991 journal publication refuted this claim in a report criticizing Abel's methods for double counting, and thus skewing the study's statistical weight. [12]

Mental health professionals have used the AASI to civilly commit sex offenders, even though the Assessment is not admissible in many courts in the United States. [13] In 2002, the Assessment was found to be inadmissible in court cases in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a ruling that was upheld by the Massachusetts Court of Appeals in 2005. [2] In a 2002 decision on the admissibility of the test by Texas appellate judge Brian Quinn, the court said that since Abel's proprietary scoring methodology is not publicly known, it "could be mathematically based, founded upon indisputable empirical research, or simply the magic of young Harry Potter's mixing potions at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry". [2] [14] The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled in 2004 that the Assessment is a tool that should be used only as treatment, and that it cannot detect whether a person has sexually abused children. [13] Independent studies of the Assessment have concluded it to be unreliable in adults and that there is not yet enough information to support its use with adolescents, whereas Abel states in his book that a therapist can not only use the Assessment for assessing adults, but also as a tool to determine whether a child is attracted to other children. [5]

The Diana Screen has also been a source of controversy for Abel due to it being a pass/fail assessment. The assessment purports to determine if someone has molested a child. Abel has promoted the use of the Diana Screen as a business opportunity for individuals and agencies. [15] A study by Abel found that most American child molesters identified as Protestant. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paraphilia</span> Atypical sexual attraction

A paraphilia is an experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, places, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human partner. Paraphilias are contrasted with normophilic ("normal") sexual interests, although the definition of what makes a sexual interest normal or atypical remains controversial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual fantasy</span> Class of mental image or pattern of thought

A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is an autoerotic mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual fantasy can be created by the person's imagination or memory, and may be triggered autonomously or by external stimulation such as erotic literature or pornography, a physical object, or sexual attraction to another person. Anything that may give rise to sexual arousal may also produce a sexual fantasy, and sexual arousal may in turn give rise to fantasies.

Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia, and from ephebophilia. While individuals with a sexual preference for adults may have some sexual interest in pubescent-aged individuals, researchers and clinical diagnoses have proposed that hebephilia is characterized by a sexual preference for pubescent rather than adult partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Freund</span> Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist (1914–1996)

Kurt Freund was a Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist best known for developing the penile plethysmograph, research studies in pedophilia, and for the "courtship disorder" hypothesis as a taxonomy of certain paraphilias. After unsuccessful attempts to change men's sexual orientation, he advocated against conversion therapy and in favor of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Penile plethysmography (PPG) or phallometry is a measurement of blood flow to the penis, typically used as a proxy for measurement of sexual arousal. The most commonly reported methods of conducting penile plethysmography involves the measurement of the circumference of the penis with a mercury-in-rubber or electromechanical strain gauge, or the volume of the penis with an airtight cylinder and inflatable cuff at the base of the penis. Corpora cavernosa nerve penile plethysmographs measure changes in response to inter-operative electric stimulation during surgery. The volumetric procedure was invented by Kurt Freund and is considered to be particularly sensitive at low arousal levels. The easier to use circumferential measures are more widely used, however, and more common in studies using erotic film stimuli. A corresponding device in women is the vaginal photoplethysmograph.

Chemical castration is castration via anaphrodisiac drugs, whether to reduce libido and sexual activity, to treat cancer, or otherwise. Unlike surgical castration, where the gonads are removed through an incision in the body, chemical castration does not remove organs and is not a form of sterilization.

Chronophilia are forms of romantic preferences and/or sexual attractions limited to individuals of particular age ranges. Some such attractions, specifically those towards prepubescents and those towards the elderly, constitute types of paraphilia. The term was coined by John Money and has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism". Importantly, chronophilia are technically not determined by age itself, but by human sexual maturity stages, such as body type, secondary sexual characteristics and other visible features, particularly as measured by the stages of the Tanner scale.

Sexual grooming is the action or behavior used to establish an emotional connection with a vulnerable person – generally a minor under the age of consent – and sometimes the victim's family, to lower their inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. It can occur in various settings, including online, in person, and through other means of communication. Children who are groomed may experience mental health issues, including "anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and suicidal thoughts."

A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the serious crimes which result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13. People with the disorder are often referred to as pedophiles.

Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. Sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser. Live streaming sexual abuse involves trafficking and coerced sexual acts, or rape, in real time on webcam.

Martin Paul Kafka is an American psychiatrist best known for his work on sex offenders, paraphilias and what he calls "paraphilia-related disorders" such as sex addiction and hypersexuality.

Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure, child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, such as using a child to produce child pornography.

Courtship disorder is a theoretical construct in sexology developed by Kurt Freund in which a certain set of paraphilias are seen as specific instances of anomalous courtship instincts in humans. The specific paraphilias are biastophilia, exhibitionism, frotteurism, telephone scatologia, and voyeurism. According to the courtship disorder hypothesis, there is a species-typical courtship process in humans consisting of four phases, and anomalies in different phases result in one of these paraphilic sexual interests. According to the theory, instead of being independent paraphilias, these sexual interests are individual symptoms of a single underlying disorder.

A range of research has been conducted examining the link between viewing child pornography and perpetration of child sexual abuse, and much disagreement persists regarding whether a causal connection has been established. Perspectives fall into one of three positions:

Child pornography is erotic material that depicts persons under the designated age of majority. The precise characteristics of what constitutes child pornography varies by criminal jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Quinsey</span> Canadian psychologist

Vernon Lewis Quinsey is a Canadian psychologist. He has studied violent crime offenders, sex offenders, sexually violent predators, juvenile delinquency, and ways to predict, assess, and manage individuals with antisocial tendencies. He has used Darwinian theory to explain antisocial behavior and actuarial methods to predict it. In addition, he has extensively studied clinical judgment.

The Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest is an assessment test that purports to measure sexual interest in various subjects – and especially to measure a tendency toward pedophilia. The test was created by Dr. Gene G. Abel in 1995, and has been subsequently revised several times. It has been used as evidence in Northern America when prosecuting sex offenders, although its reliability has since been disputed and it has been declared inadmissible in court in various jurisdictions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile sex offenders in the United States</span>

A juvenile sex crime is defined as a legally proscribed sexual crime committed without consent by a minor under the age of 18. The act involves coercion, manipulation, a power imbalance between the perpetrator and victim, and threats of violence. The sexual offenses that fall under juvenile sex crimes range from non-contact to penetration. The severity of the sexual assault in the crime committed is often the amount of trauma and/or injuries the victim has suffered. Typically within these crimes, female children are the majority demographic of those targeted and the majority of offenders are male. Juvenile sex offenders are different than adult sex offenders in a few ways, as captured by National Incident Based Reporting System: they are more likely to be committed in school, offend in groups and against acquaintances, target young children as victims, and to have a male victim, whereas they are less likely than their adult counterpart to commit rape.

Raymond A. Knight is a psychologist and academic most known for his research on schizophrenia and on aggressive behavior, particularly sexual aggression, psychopathy, and bullying, exploring their causes, life course, and outcomes, and for developing the Multidimensional Inventory of Development, Sex, and Aggression (MIDSA) that assesses treatment targets for those who have sexually offended. He is a professor emeritus of Human Relations at Brandeis University.

References

  1. ↑ Churchman, Deborah (4 October 1988). "Is Child Abuse a Disease? Making a Case for Treating Sex Offenders". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ewing, Charles Patrick (January 2006). "Testing tool in question". Monitor on Psychology. 37 (1): 67. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  3. ↑ Micolucci, Vic (27 June 2013). "Test could be missing link in background checks". NBC 4 Jax . Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  4. 1 2 O’Reilly, Gary (2004). The Handbook of Clinical Intervention with Young People who Sexually Abuse. Psychology Press.
  5. 1 2 Fischer, L (July 1999). "Statistical adequacy of the Abel Assessment for Interest in Paraphilias". Sex Abuse. 11 (3): 195–205. doi:10.1177/107906329901100303. PMID   10497779. S2CID   37350800.
  6. ↑ United States of America v. Guy Randy White Horse(U.S. District Court, South Dakota Western Division2001), Text .
  7. ↑ Smith, Gillan MacLean (1998). "Testing the Reliability and Validity of the Abel Assessment". Department of Counseling and Special Education. Brigham Young University.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Our Therapists: Gene G. Abel, M.D., Behavioral Medical Institute of Atlanta (access date July 17, 2015)
  9. ↑ Past Presidents Archived 2015-07-21 at the Wayback Machine , Society of Behavioral Medicine official web site (accessed 2015-07-18).
  10. ↑ Awards Archived 2015-07-21 at the Wayback Machine , Gene G. Abel web site.
  11. ↑ Frances, Allen (June 26, 2009). "A Warning Sign on the Road to DSM-V: Beware of Its Unintended Consequences". Psychiatric Times . Retrieved 23 January 2014. (subscription required to access full article)
  12. ↑ Marshall, W. L., & Eccles, A. (1991). "Issues in clinical practice with sex offenders". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 6: 69–70. doi:10.1177/088626091006001006. S2CID   145327551.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. 1 2 Myers, John E.B. (2005). Myers on Evidence in Child, Domestic, and Elder Abuse. Aspen. ISBN   9780735556683.
  14. ↑ Chammah, Maurice (2015-07-09). "The Sex-Offender Test: How a computerized assessment can help determine the fate of men who've been accused of sexually abusing children". The Atlantic . Retrieved 2015-07-09.
  15. ↑ Franklin, Karen (30 December 2008). "Will 'revolutionary' Diana Screen end pedophile menace?". Forensic Psychologist. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  16. ↑ https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=da65e59f06df4d96fce9dc9905c44d051793e5c9 . Retrieved 2025-01-28.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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