JUVENILE SEXUAL OFFENDERS

How are characteristics of juvenile sexual offenders different from other juvenile offenders?

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction2

Problem / Objective:2

Chapter 2: Literature Review3

Chapter 3: Methodology5

Research Design:5

Subjects for Study:5

Measurements:6

Data Collection Method:6

Informed Consent:7

Ethical concern:7

Chapter 4: Conclusion8

References10

How are characteristics of juvenile sexual offenders different from other juvenile offenders?

Chapter 1: Introduction

In the United States of America sexual assault is a severe issue. As reported there exists wide sexual victimization, with a 15% lifetime prevalence rate for men and 25% for women (McCormick, Marshall & Barbaree, 1988). Public concern and awareness regarding the sexual violence issue has increased because of growing sexual crimes incidences (Brown, 1999). The general public's attitude towards sex offenders seems to be extremely negative (Antonowicz, Furac & Valliant, 1994). A considerably elevated number of mature sex offenders started their unlawful offences during their adolescence, and crimes of sex against juvenile by juveniles are contributing to the elevating occurrence crimes of sex (Lakey, 1994). As indicated by the adult sex offender studies that almost 50% of the adult offenders report their initial sex offence happened when they were adolescents and frequently these offences rose in severity and frequency with the passage of time (McNamara & Ertl, 1997; Whitney, Stith & Bischof, 1995). The common juvenile sex offender might then persist on committing up to 380 offences in her or his lifespan (McNamara & Ertl, 1997). As reported by Shortz, Mayer, Harsoe and Wieckowski (1998) that juvenile sex offenders within their study started committing sexual offences between ten and eleven years of age. An average of 69.5 sexual offences got committed till the time the offender got adjudicated and apprehended. A large number of these juvenile used either violence, or force (Shortz, et.al, 1998).

Problem / Objective:

The key objective of this paper is to find out the differences among the characteristics of juvenile offenders and juvenile sex offenders.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Juvenile sex offenders as per the international research are a heterogeneous group (Welch & Rightland, 2004), with the gender omission (as the female juvenile sex offenders are very few as compared to the male juvenile offenders). As with mature sex offenders, efforts have been made for classifying juvenile sex offenders on personality characteristics or crime characteristics (Graham, Bhate, Kelly & Richardson, 1997; Becker, Malamuth, Figueredo & Hunter, 2003; Rasmussen, 2004). Normally there exist two classification reasons. First, researchers who are theoretically oriented seem to be interested in the classification due to the fact that there exists a literature body which states that there are various pathways, which lead to sexual offending in juveniles. Secondly, the clinicians and judicial system necessitate the offender characteristics specification and their particular needs and risks for making well-considered decisions regarding treatment and sentencing requirements (Siegart & Ward, 2002; Barbaree & Marshall, 1990; Van Outsem, 2007). Certainly, a fine comprehension of the sexual delinquency aetiology is extremely appropriate of prevention programmes that are evidence-based.

Additionally for documenting the distinct characteristics of juvenile sex offenders there exists a rising interest for better comprehending how the juvenile offenders are different from juvenile sex ...