Prospects of the Juvenile Sex Offenders

Table of Contents

History of Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment3

Juvenile Sex Offenders5

Research Findings on Treatment Efficacy67

Laws Governing Juvenile Sex Offenders8

Punishment and Rehabilitation10

Communities Need Protection11

Notification Laws Struck Down12

Does Notification Work?14

Courts and the Future15

Juvenile Sex Offender Therapy: Current Principles and Practices16

Treatment for Violent Juvenile offenders16

Indefinite Incarceration18

What is a sexually abusive behaviour by Juveniles?19

Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment20

A Deterrent Effect21

Summary25

Literature Review on Prospects of the Juvenile Sex Offenders

History of Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment

In the early through mid-20th century, criminal sexual deviants were favoured objects of study by the emerging disciplines of criminology, psychiatry, and psychology. Leading scholars in these fields believed that the scientific study of such individuals would yield methods for early identification, intervention, and possibly the prevention of future sexual offending. As with other criminal populations, actual research related to treatment methods and evaluation was severely limited in practice. But several important clinical and correctional studies took place, creating a foundation for knowledge about sexual violence. The practice of juvenile sex offender treatment had emerged by the early 21st century as a significant cottage industry, with some standardization and credentialing achieved through professional associations and the involvement of the federal government (Price, 2009).

In the 1930s and 1940s, governmental and public energy surrounding the problem of sexual deviance was funnelled primarily into the passage and refinement of laws to civilly commit certain offenders, often with rehabilitation underneath more incapacitate intentions. A decade later, rehabilitation was the dominant correctional ideology, for sexual criminality as well as all other offences. By far the most important debate in corrections between 1950 and 1980 involved the potential for and proper role of the rehabilitation of criminals. There was widespread support for psychiatry as the solution to the problem of crime. Many scholars have written about the importance of the medicalization of social control in the mid to late 20th century and in particular the importance of psychiatry and its related treatment professions in shaping conceptions of the normal and the abnormal. Juvenile sex offenders turned out to be a crucial proving ground for psychiatric expertise at a time when its status and credibly were hotly debated (Knopp, 1984).

From the vantage point of the post-war period, criminal sexual deviance was one component of the larger study of sexuality. For example, the Kinsey report, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, published in 1948, received international attention, and remains a touchstone for the study of sex. From the extreme of the abnormal sexual psychopath to the worrisome possibility that sexual deviance was actually normal, sex was a major centre of debate during this period. The Kinsey researchers included homosexuality and a variety of other behaviours classified as criminal, such as exhibitionism, in their inquiries (Furby et al., 1989).

In the 1970s, Quaker prison reformer Fay Honey Knopp became concerned by the lack of specialized treatment services available for sexual abusers. In 1976, her organization, the Safer Society Foundation, began tracking the development of specialized sex offender treatment programs. In addition, abusers, their families, professionals, and others can contact ...