Dissociative experiences of sexual offenders: A comparison between two outpatient groups and those found to be falsely accused

The Dissociative Experiences Scale (Bernstein and Pumam, 1986), a 28-item self report questionnaire which distinguishes between subjects with a dissociative disorder and those without, was administered to 71 sex offenders who presented for treatment at a clinic at a major university medical school, a community based outpatient program, and 14 men who were falsely accused of sexual abuse. Outpatient sex offenders in both programs scored in the range attributed to the general population. Neither outpatient sample had significantly different scores From each other, although it was hypothesizedthey would. The trend For persons falsely accused of child sexual abuse was to score lower than the offenders, and lower than the general population.