Juvenile sex offenders in the United States and Australia: A comparison

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of juvenile sex offenders in the USA and Australia. Juvenile sex offenders are shown to have common characteristics that include prior childhood abuse, experiences with sibling incest, possession of specific psychological dysfunctions, and dysfunctional familial backgrounds. These characteristics are common to juvenile sex offenders in both countries, pointing to the likelihood of universal typological determinations. Further, treatment programs for juvenile sex offenders in both countries are shown to be similar in structure, orientation and overall effectiveness. From the compiled research in both countries, it is shown that early childhood factors as well as post-offense interventions have similarities that support the notion that juvenile sex offenders have a universal basis in etiology and recidivism.

Keywords:

• sex offender
• juvenile
• corrections

Notes

1. I.A. Nisbet, S. Rombouts and S.W. Smallbone, ‘Impacts of Programs for Adolescents who Sexually Offend: Literature Review’, 2005. New South Wales Department of Community Services (Ashfield, NSW, Australia). Retrieved from: http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/documents/adolescents_literature_review.pdf(accessed July 2006).

2. S.C. Zolonder, G.G. Abel, W.F. Northey and A.D. Jordan, ‘The Self-Reported Behaviors of Juvenile Sexual Offenders’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 16, no. 1 (2001): 73–85.

3. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’.

4. A. Stewart, S. Dennison and E. Waterson, ‘Pathways from Child Maltreatment to Juvenile Offending’, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2007. Australian Institute of Criminology (Canberra, Australia). Retrieved from: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi241t.html (accessed August 2007).

5. D. Kenny, K. Seidler, T. Keogh and A. Blaszcynski, ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian Juvenile Sex Offenders: Implications for Treatment’, Department of Juvenile Justice, New South Wales, Australia, 1999; Steward et al., ‘Pathways from Child Maltreatment’.

6. S. Righthand and C. Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended: A Review of the Professional Literature’, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Washington, DC, 2001.

7. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

8. R.A. Knight and R.A. Prentky, ‘Exploring Characteristics for Classifying Juvenile Sex Offenders’, in The Juvenile Sex Offender, ed. H.E. Barbaree, W.L. Marshall and S.M. Hudson (New York, NY: Guilford Press, 1993), 45–83.

9. Kenny et al., ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian’.

10. Ibid.; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

11. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

12. J.A. Hunter, ‘Understanding Juvenile Sex Offenders: Research Findings and Guidelines for Effective Management and Treatment’, in Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet, Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 2000; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

13. Kenny et al., ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian’; Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

14. R. D. Hanser, Special needs offenders in the community (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007).

15. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’.

16. S. Araji, Sexually Aggressive Children: Coming To Understand Them (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997); Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’; J.R. Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology of Adolescent Male Sexual Offenders: Differences in Recidivism Rates, Victim-Selection Characteristics, and Personal Victimization Histories’, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 13, no. 3 (2001): 149–66.

17. Araji, Sexually Aggressive Children; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

18. Araji, Sexually Aggressive Children; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

19. M. O'Brien, ‘Taking Sibling Incest Seriously’, in Family Sexual Abuse. ed. M.Q. Patton (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1991), 75–92.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

24. S. Rayment-McHugh and I. Nisbet, ‘Sibling Incest Offenders as a Subset of Adolescent Sex Offenders’, Australian Institute of Criminology, 2003. Australian Institute of Criminology (Canberra, Australia). Retrieved from: http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/2003-abuse/nisbet.pdf (accessed August 2007); Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’; Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

25. Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

26. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’; Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

27. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

28. Ibid.; Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

29. Rayment-McHugh and Nisbet, ‘Sibling Incest Offenders’.

30. Ibid.

31. Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’.

32. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

33. J.V. Becker and B.R. Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’, in Treating Adult and Juvenile Offenders with Special Needs, ed. J.B. Ashford, B.D. Sales and W.H. Reid (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001), 131–70; A.R. Flitton and R.C. Brager, ‘Juvenile Sex Offenders: Assessment and treatment’, in Handbook of Juvenile Forensic Psychology, ed. N.G. Ribner (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002); P.J. Fagan, G. Lehne, J.G. Strand and F.S. Berlin, ‘Paraphilias’, in Oxford Textbook of Psychotherapy, ed. G.O. Gabbard, J.S. Beck and J. Holmes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 213–26.

34. Rayment-McHugh and Nisbet, ‘Sibling Incest Offenders’.

35. Ibid.

36. That is, O'Brien, ‘Taking Sibling Incest Seriously’; Worling, ‘Personality-Based Typology’; and Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

37. Rayment-McHugh and Nisbet, ‘Sibling Incest Offenders’.

38. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, p. 96.

39. B. Bonner and M. Chaffin, ‘Dyad and Family Therapy in Sibling Abuse and Sibling Sexual Behavior’, Workshop presented at the Conference on Responding to Child Maltreatment, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Advanced Training Institute, San Diego, CA, January 1998.

40. Ibid.; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

41. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Flitton and Brager, ‘Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

42. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

43. Ibid.

44. W.E. Prendergast, Treating Sex Offenders: A Guide to Clinical Practice with Adults, Clerics, Children, and Adolescents, 2nd ed. (New York, NY: Haworth Press, 2004); Ashford et al., Treating Adult and Juvenile Offenders.

45. Prendergast, Treating Sex Offenders.

46. W.D. Pithers, A. Gray, A. Busconi and P. Houchens, ‘Children with Sexual Behavior Problems: Identification of Five Distinct Child Types and Related Treatment Considerations’, Child Maltreatment 3, no. 4 (1998): 384–406.

47. Ibid.

48. Ibid.

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid.

51. Ibid.

52. Prendergast, Treating Sex Offenders; Pithers et al., ‘Children with Sexual Behavior Problems’.

53. Prendergast, Treating Sex Offenders.

54. Pithers et al., ‘Children with Sexual Behavior Problems’.

55. C.R. Bartol, Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach, 5th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002).

56. R.J. Kavoussi, M. Kaplan and J.V. Becker, ‘Psychiatric Diagnoses in Adolescent Sex Offenders’, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 27, no. 2 (1988): 241–3; M.H. Miner, G.P. Siekert and M.A. Ackland, ‘Evaluation: Juvenile Sex Offender Treatment Program, Minnesota Correctional Facility—Sauk Centre’, Department of Family Practice and Community Health, Program in Human Sexuality, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 1997.

57. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

58. Ibid.

59. Ibid.

60. Ibid.

61. Pithers et al., ‘Children with Sexual Behavior Problems’.

62. O.W. Barnett, C.L. Miller-Perrin and R.D. Perrin, Family Violence across the Lifespan, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004).

63. Kenny et al., ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian’; Kavoussi et al., ‘Psychiatric Diagnoses’; Miner et al., ‘Evaluation: Juvenile Sex Offender’; M.A. Smith and E. Israel, ‘Sibling Incest: A Study of the Dynamics of 25 Cases’, Child Abuse and Neglect 11 (1987): 101–108.

64. M.R. Dadds, S. Smallbone, I. Nisbet and J. Dombrowski, ‘Willingness, Confidence, and Knowledge, to Work with Adolescent Sex Offenders: An Evaluation of Training Workshops’, Behavior Change 20, no. 2 (2003): 117–23; M. O'Keefe, ‘Linking Martial violence, mother–child/ father–child aggression, and child behavior problems’. Journal of Family Violence 9, (1994): 63–78.

65. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

66. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.

67. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Fagan et al., ‘Paraphilias’; D. Kenny, T. Keogh K. Seidler and A. Blaszczynski, ‘Juvenile Sex Offenders in the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice: Can we Distinguish Single from Multiple Offenders and What are the Implications for that Treatment?’, Department of Juvenile Justice, New South Wales, Australia, 2004.

68. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Fagan et al., ‘Paraphilias’; Kenny et al., ‘Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

69. Bartol, Criminal Behavior.

70. Ibid., 273.

71. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

72. Ibid., xii. See also Becker and Stein as cited in J.A. Hunter and J.V. Becker, ‘The role of deviant sexual arousal in Juvenile sexual offending: Etiology, evaluation and treatment, Criminal Justice and Behavior, 21 (1994): 132–149; E. Wieckowski, P. Hartsoe, A. Mayer and J. Shortz, ‘Deviant Sexual Behavior in Children and Young Adolescents: Frequency and Patterns’, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 10, no. 4 (1998): 293–304; and Ford and Linney, as cited in J.V. Becker and J.A. Hunter, ‘Understanding and Treating Child and Adolescent Sexual Offenders’, Advances in Clinical Child Psychology 19 (1997): 177–97.

73. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

74. Ibid.

75. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

76. Ibid.

77. Ibid.; Fagan et al., ‘Paraphilias’.

78. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 566.

79. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Fagan et al., ‘Paraphilias’; I.A. Nisbet, P.H. Wilson and S.W. Smallbone, ‘A prospective longitudinal study of sexual recidivism among 26 adolescent sex offenders’, Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment 16, no. 3 (2004): 223–34.

80. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

81. Ibid., 276.

82. Ibid.

83. Hanson and Bussiere as cited in Fagan et al., ‘Paraphilias’, 214.

84. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’.

85. Nisbet et al., ‘A Prospective Longitudinal Study’.

86. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Kenny et al., ‘Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

87. Dadds et al., ‘Willingness, Confidence, and Knowledge’.

88. Ibid.

89. Ibid.

90. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; M.L. Bourke and B. Donohue, ‘Assessment and Treatment of Juvenile Sex Offenders: An Empirical Review’, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 5, no. 1 (1996): 47–70; Center for Sex Offender Management, ‘Understanding Juvenile Sexual Offending Behavior: Emerging Research, Treatment Approaches, and Management Practices’, Center for Sex Offender Management, Silver Spring, MD, 1999. Found at: http://www.csom.org (accessed June 2007); Hanser (2007); S. Righthand and C. Welch, ‘Characteristics of Youth who Sexually Offend’, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 13, no. 3/4 (2001): 15–32.

91. Becker and Johnson, ‘Treating Juvenile Sex Offenders’; Bourke and Donohue, ‘Assessment and Treatment’; Center for Sex Offender Management, ‘Understanding Juvenile Sexual Offending Behavior’; Hanser (2007); Righthand and Weich ‘Characteristics of Youth who Sexually Offend’.

92. Dadds et al., ‘Willingness, Confidence, and Knowledge’.

93. Ibid.

94. Hanser (2007); Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

95. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

96. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’.

97. Ibid., 22.

98. Ibid.

99. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

100. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’; Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

101. Kenny et al., ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian’.

102. Ibid., 9.

103. Ibid., 9.

104. Nisbet et al., ‘Impacts of Programs’.

105. Righthand and Welch, ‘Juveniles who have Sexually Offended’.

106. Kenny et al., ‘Clinical Characteristics of Australian’, 9.

107. Ibid.