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CSPV
Fact Sheets
| Juvenile Sexual Aggression |
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The legal options and clinical resources for processing
juvenile sex offenders have been developing at an astounding
rate; in 1980 there was only one program for juvenile
sex offenders, now there are approximately one thousand
according to the Safer Society.
Although the body of research is largely limited
to small, clinical samples, the available evidence
on juvenile sex offender (JSO) characteristics suggests:
- A majority of JSOs offend solely against children.
- The first offense is most likely to occur when
the perpetrator is about 13 or 14 years old.
- Victims are most likely to be female acquaintances
or siblings; rarely are they strangers.
- A significant minority of youthful child molesters
have both female and male victims.
- Most offenses by a child molester could be construed
as coercive rather than violent.
- Serious delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and
interpersonal aggression are relatively uncommon
among teens who molest only younger children; however
there has been a high prevalence of conduct disorder
in some samples of child molesters.
- Adolescent male child molesters tend to be shy
if not socially isolated, lack self-esteem, and
are aroused to children but are attracted to girls
their own age.
- Being a victim of some form of abuse or neglect
increases the likelihood of sexual offending in
adolescence. But, most JSOs do not appear to have
been sex abuse victims and most victims of child
abuse do not become perpetrators.
- Juvenile rapists vary considerably from juvenile
child molesters. They use threats, force and violence,
they are likely to have suffered from parental neglect,
they are less prone to social isolation, and there
is little evidence of antisocial personality or
lifestyle. However, they have been found to show
arousal to aggressive sex, harbor condescending
and adversarial attitudes toward women, and are
likely to have used alcohol prior to the assault.
- According to National Youth Survey (NYS) data,
a national probability sample of youth, among those
who self-reported a sexual assault, 92 percent had
previously committed a (non-sexual) aggravated assault
and property crimes. Less aggressive crimes against
persons tended to precede both. Forcible rape was
the final act in a developmental progression. Other
antecedents of sexual violence included minor delinquency
and substance use.
Tentative findings from recidivism studies include:
- Most males who sexually abuse younger children
do not re offend, at least not sexually, during
the 5-10 years following apprehension.
- There is a fair likelihood that JSOs will subsequently
come to the attention of police for non-sex offenses.
For those whose offenses are sexual in nature they
are less inclined to re offend non-sexually.
- JSOs who have institutionalized are more likely
to reappear in court than those who have not.
Recommendations include:
- Models of juvenile sexual offending need to be
informed by developmental theory and validated by
empirical studies using measures that have demonstrated
reliability and validity.
- In particular, longitudinal studies using representative
samples of known juvenile sex offenders are needed.
- Integration of findings from typology research
and etiology studies must be improved.
- Measures developed in delinquency research and
in other fields should be used or adapted for use
with JSOs to assess parenting skills/style, criminal
behavior, peer culture, social bonding, empathy,
impulsiveness, exposure to violence, and victimization
history. There should also be more emphasis on measures
withing the school context since truancy has been
associated with recidivism.
- Much research is needed on the assessment of deviant
arousal in JSOs.
- Methodology studies should focus on improving
the validity of both pornography and violent sex
exposure measures.
- Evaluations of existing treatment programs for
JSOs are needed.
- Research must focus more on the environment to
which institutionalized JSOs return.
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