title: Sexual offense adjudication and sexual recidivism among juvenile offenders.
abstract: This study compares the recidivism patterns of a cohort of 249 juvenile sexual offenders and 1,780 non-sexual offending delinquents who were released from secured custody over a two and one half year period. The prevalence of sex offenders with new sexual offense charges during the 5 year follow-up period was 6.8%, compared to 5.7% for the non-sexual offenders, a non-significant difference. Juvenile sex offenders were nearly ten times more likely to have been charged with a nonsexual offense than a sexual offense. Eighty-five percent of the new sexual offenses in the follow-up period were accounted for by the non-sex offending delinquents. None of the 54 homicides (including three sexual homicides) was committed by a juvenile sex offender. The implications of the results for recent public policy trends that impose restrictions that are triggered by a sexual offense adjudication are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1202 W, Johnson St., Madison, WI 53706, USA. mfcaldwell@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Caldwell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data