Juvenile sex offenders: toward the development of a typology.
Adolescent males who sexually offended against prepubescent children were contrasted with those who targeted pubescent and postpubescent females. As hypothesized, path analyses revealed that the former group had greater deficits in psychosocial functioning, used less aggression in their sexual offending, and were more likely to offend against relatives. Theorized relationships between developmental risk factors, personality mediators, and sexual and nonsexual offense characteristics were assessed in both groups of juvenile sex offenders. Deficits in psychosocial functioning were found to mediate the influence of childhood exposure to violence against females on adolescent perpetration of sexual and nonsexual offenses. Additional univariate analyses were conducted to further explore some associations among early risk factors, personality mediators, and outcomes. Childhood physical abuse by a father or stepfather and exposure to violence against females were found to be associated with higher levels of comorbid anxiety and depression. Noncoercive childhood sexual victimization by a male nonrelative was found to be associated with sexual offending against a male child. Clinical and theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.
Hunter
John A
JA
Departments of Health Evaluation Sciences, Psychology, and Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia, 3rd Floor, Hospital West, Room 3181, P.O. Box 800717, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. jhunter@virginia.edu
Figueredo
Aurelio J
AJ
Malamuth
Neil M
NM
Becker
Judith V
JV
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D040821:Human Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*