Predictors of Recidivism in Australian Juvenile Sex Offenders: Implications for Treatment

Abstract

Juvenile sex offenders charged with their first sexual offense were compared with recidivist juvenile sex offenders who had been charged with more than one sexual offense on a number of factors related to sexual offending. Participants were 70 male juvenile sex offenders, aged 13-21 years who were awaiting court disposition. Negative family history, negative family characteristics, school and learning problems, social skill deficits, deviant sexual experiences, deviant sexual fantasies, and cognitive distortions were assessed for their direct and mediating roles in recidivism. Path analysis indicated that poor social skills, learning problems, and deviant sexual experiences were causally related to recidivism of sexual offending. Poor social skills were directly related to recidivism, whereas cognitive distortions and deviant sexual fantasies mediated the role of learning problems and deviant sexual experiences. There was a significant association between deviant sexual experience and learning problems. The findings support the role of cognitive distortions and deviant sexual fantasies in recidivist sexual offending for this sample. The causal role identified for poor social skills and learning problems in recidivism for sexual offending has implications for treatment and therefore deserves further attention.

Factor Structure and Validation of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol (J-SOAP)

“…In the structural equation model developed by Kenny et al (2001), poor social skills was an exogenous variable that yielded direct paths to recidivism (standardized regression weight of .30) as well as to cognitive distortions (standardized regression weight of .29). There is some support in the empirical literature for two different facets of a "clinical risk" domain, a cognitive component that includes attitudes supportive of antisocial or deviant behavior (e.g., Gerdes, Gourley, & Cash, 1995;Spaccarelli et al, 1997) and a social/affective component that includes quality of interpersonal attachments, capacity for empathy and remorse, and emotional regulation (e.g., Marshall, Hudson, & Hodkinson, 1993).…”

A Developmental Taxonomy of Juvenile Sex Offenders for Theory, Research, and Prevention

“…with JSOs, in which such a distinction is rarely made (McCann & Lussier, 2008). Considering the case of the HRSD, it is unclear whether risk factors that are associated with sexual reoffending in youth (e.g., Hendriks, 2006;Kenny, Keogh, & Seidler, 2001;Prentky, Harris, Frizzell, & Righthand, 2000;Worling & Långström, 2006) are the same factors that contribute to the persistence of sexual offending into adulthood. In that regard, Knight, Ronis, and Zakireh (2009) recently demonstrated that JSOs who persist in adulthood were more likely than nonpersisting juvenile offenders to show evidence of sexual preoccupation and compulsivity, poor perspective taking, (adult/child) pornography use, hostility toward women, and superficial charm and grandiosity.…”

Men Presenting With Sexual Thoughts of Children or Coercion: Flights of Fancy or Plans for Crime?

“…Other conclusions are limited; studies examining sexual fantasies of coercing adults have predominantly/completely sampled men who sexually offended against children [15,25] or investigated broader 'deviant' or 'crime' fantasy categories [16,26,27].…”