Abstract

The present paper explored the relation between the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sexual aggression. Many research on the characteristics of sexual offenders report that significant proportion of juvenile or adult sexual offenders were sexual abuse victims in childhood. Paradoxically, some of sexually abused children recapitulate the abuse experience by engaging in sexual offense as juveniles or adults. This paper proposes that PTSD symptoms could be important mediating variables for the association between childhood sexual victimization and subsequent sexual offending in adulthood. Trauma symptoms such as intrusive memory may lead to trauma-associated feelings such as fear and helplessness, which may in turn disrupt offenders’ subsequent socio-cognitive-emotional functioning. Disruptive socio-cognitive-emotional functioning finally contributes to engaging in maladaptive behaviors such as sexual offense.