a comparative study of adult rapists' attachment styles and its domains with non rapists

we examined the attachment styles and its domains in a sample of rapists. 34 rapists were randomly selected among a larger group of rapists who were in captivity in central prison of mashhad city and were compared with 34 non rapist individuals (controls); all participants were matched on age, marital status, occupation status and literacy level. the control participants were selected based on their gsi scores on scl-90-r )gsi 1 (. data gathered through experiences in close relationships-revised (ecr-r) and were analyzed by dependent t-tests and chi-square tests (x2). results showed that, compared with the controls, rapists scored significantly higher on attachment anxiety. the two groups did not differ on attachment avoidant. moreover, rapists showed a higher ration on insecure attachment styles than the controls. therefore, rapists have a high level of attachment anxiety that may lead them toward committing sexual crimes, sexual offensive behaviors, and rape. keywords sexual offender, sexual abuse, rapist, attachment style, attachment domain