Schemas are an individual's worldview. Many deviant
crimes begin with the offender's negative schemas that constantly bring him
closer to offending. Rapists often have schemas that include a negative image of
their victims such as, "All women are [derogatory comment here]", or "she
deserved it because…" are often heard in the statements made by offenders. In
these cases, the offender's schema dictates that since one woman in his life
provided this example justifying his statement, all other women must be the
same.
Schemas in offenders provide a vast resource for feelings of anger, resentment,
or any other belief that could cause one to offend. Schemas also go a long way
toward giving the offender material for justifying, minimizing or blaming the
victim for the crime. Offender often state that the victim "deserves" this or
that, generalize a negative trait to all women/children or even minimize the
amount of force because sex is "supposed to be rough". In other cases an
offender may minimize offenses because he "didn't hurt her". In these cases, the
offender is referring to the physical force and not taking into consideration
the emotional strain of the victim.
Therapeutically, schemas are important to recognize and attempt to confront,
challenge and dismantle. Creating a genogram (a visual representation of the
individual's family of origin, much like a family tree) provides some insight
and understanding for the client and clinician to explore relationships, events,
and family dynamics that led to the current negative schema. When a genogram is
completed properly, it often reveals patterns of behavior/thinking that ws
passed down from one generation to the next.
At first, it may seem as though this is "passing the buck" and blaming another
(parent) for the offender's actions. Yet, it is important to the offender to
recognize that he must take responsibility for his actions and the continuation
of the negative schemas. An understanding of this concept often provides an
offender with a beginning point to breaking the cycle.
In our next article, I will present a genogram and the effectiveness of using
this intervention.
E-mail your questions or suggestions to
Bryan Nelson
