Juvenile Sex Offenders

Abstract

Sexual offending by juveniles accounts for a sizable percentage of sexual offenses, especially against young children. In this article, recent research on female juvenile sex offenders (JSOs), risk factors for offending in juveniles, treatment, and the ways in which these youth may differ from general delinquents will be reviewed. Most JSOs do not go on to develop paraphilic disorders or to commit sex offenses during adulthood, and as a group, they are more similar to nonsexual offending juvenile delinquents than to adult sex offenders. Recent research has elucidated some differences between youth who commit sex offenses and general delinquents in the areas of atypical sexual interests, the use of pornography, and early sexual victimization during childhood.

When Juveniles Commit Sexual Offenses: Considerations and Recommendations for Judges

“…Research suggests that re‐offense rates for juvenile sexual offenders are quite low, with at least one study finding that sexual offense reconviction rates of juvenile sexual offenders is less than 1% (Letourneau & Armstrong, 2008). Consistent with an “adolescent limited trajectories” perspective on delinquency (Moffit, Caspi, Harrington, & Milne, ) whereby delinquent youth tend to “course correct” before adulthood, juvenile sexual offenders are comparable to juveniles who commit nonsexual offenses, as most delinquent youth typically respond to relatively limited interventions (Kuhn, Marsh, & Cotman, ) and do not go on to become career criminals (Ryan & Otonichar, ). In fact, researchers have identified that base‐rates of juvenile sexual reoffending are quite low (Caldwell, ), and juveniles who have committed a sexual offense are much more likely to recidivate by engaging in a nonsexual offense rather than a sexual offense (Christiansen & Vincent, ).…”

“…are often not well understood. In particular, juvenile sexual offenders are exceptionally misunderstood within the legal system (Ryan & Otonichar, ). The public and law enforcement/prosecutors often demonize juvenile sexual offenders when they incorrectly interpret that these individuals are pathologically and irrevocably deviant, resistant or nonresponsive to treatment, more likely to reoffend, and a serious threat to public safety (Kim, Benekos, & Merlo, ).…”

“…Undeniably, juveniles do make up a nontrivial portion of all sexual offences committed in the United States (Ryan & Otonichar, ), with juvenile sexual offenses constituting 12.7% of all sexual offenses that were committed in 2015 (UCR, 2015). While the overall percentage of sexual offenses committed by juveniles might seem high in proportion to their representation in our population, it is important to put these statistics into perspective.…”

“…As there is no profile for a typical juvenile sexual offender, there are no risk assessments available for predicting a first sexual offense (Ryan & Otonichar, ). However, there is an effort to utilize risk assessments to identify treatment and supervision needs.…”

Health Belief Model and Labelling Theory in the Analysis of Preventive Behaviors to Address Biopsychosocial Impacts of Sexual Violence among Street Children in Yogyakarta

“…Sexual harassment may also lead to heavy stress onto the victims, make the victims feel sad, anxious, and depressed. Some studies also mentioned that crimal act in the form of sexual violence and sexual harassment happend during childhood despite having high risk in developing psychological disorder in the future, it also has high risk in turning the victim into the perpetrator in the future (Ohlert et al, 2017;Ryan andOtonichar, 2016 andManiglio, 2009). …”