Sexual Offenders

Sexual offenders are criminal offenders who have been found guilty of committing offenses that are sexual in nature. Sexual offenses cover a broad range of sexual behaviors that include child molestation, rape, sexual harassment, and the production or distribution of pornographic material involving children as subjects. Criminal sexual behaviors are nonconsensual (i.e., the victim is unwilling or is unable to consent to sexual activity). Victims can be unable to consent if they are too young, or if they are considered incapacitated due to alcohol, drugs, or a preexisting mental condition. All the following behaviors are examples of sexual crimes: an individual exposing his genitals at a public location, an individual using threats to impose sexual contact on another adult, a 20-yearold male engaging in sexual activity with his 14-year-old girlfriend, and the fondling of a child by an adult. If reported to the police, these behaviors can lead to criminal charges and conviction. The perpetrators of these acts are considered sexual offenders. This entry reviews the characteristics of criminal offenders who commit sexual offenses, the etiology of sexual offending and classification of offenders, the legal provisions specific to the management of sexual offenders, the assessment of the risk of recidivism posed by sexual offenders, and the various treatment approaches to sexual offending.

Males commit the majority of sexual offenses. Only a small proportion of all sexual offenses are perpetrated by female offenders, but it is possible that female participation in sexual abuse is underestimated due to commonly accepted gender roles. In addition, a majority of sexual offenders know their victims personally, and most sexual crimes occur in the residence of the offender or the victim.

Notwithstanding these general patterns, sexual offenders are a heterogeneous group. Their age, culture, education level, employment, marital status, and socioeconomic background vary. Their sexual crimes also differ: Some offenders use physical force, others threaten their victims, and still others use manipulation to gain compliance from their victims. Some crimes involve physical contact with a victim, including kissing, sexual touching, oral sex, and penetration. Other offenses do not involve direct contact, including exhibitionism and trading of child pornography. Some offenders have a small number of victims, while others have many. Some victims are abused once, while others are repeatedly victimized over long periods of time. Therefore, although the term sexual offender is commonly used to describe all these perpetrators, there is no such thing as a typical sexual offender. Differences in the range of offenses, the variety of contexts, and offending rates also result in varying levels of risk of future sexual offending. The average sexual recidivism rate over a 5-year follow-up period is 13%, but this rate varies depending on an offender’s characteristics.

In order to understand the heterogeneity in sexual offenders, two factors must be considered. First, offenders can be differentiated based on the age of their victims. Sexual offenders who commit their crimes against child victims are classified as child molesters, while those who commit crimes against adult victims are classified as rapists. Rapists and child molesters represent two different profiles of sexual offenders. Rapists are typically younger and are more versatile in their criminal careers, being involved in many crimes that are not sexual in nature. In comparison, child molesters are older when they commit their sexual offenses. They are also more specialized in sexual crimes. In addition, a larger proportion of rapists’ sexual crimes involve stranger victims and use of force. Rapists and child molesters are also different in their rates of sexual recidivism.

The second important factor differentiating sexual offenders is the age of the offender. Although a sizeable proportion of all sexual crimes are committed by juveniles, these offenders constitute a group that is distinct from adult sexual offenders. Their sexual crimes are different: They are more likely to involve sexual offenses committed in groups, to occur in schools, and to be perpetrated against male and younger victims. The criminal careers of juveniles are also different. The majority of juvenile sexual offenders do not continue to commit sexual offenses in adulthood once they have been detected. Juvenile offenders have lower rates of sexual recidivism compared to adult offenders. Therefore, juvenile sexual offenders are not younger versions of adult sexual offenders but a distinct category of offenders.

Etiology

There are multiple explanations for what causes someone to commit a sexual offense. Biological factors have been noted in some subgroups of sexual offenders. Offenders who are sexually attracted to children (i.e., pedophiles) generally have abnormalities in their left temporal lobe, have shorter height, are more frequently left-handed, and have lower intelligence levels. Right temporal lobe abnormalities are often found in sexual offenders who commit sadistic sexual offenses. Cognitive factors may also play a role in the etiology of sexual offending. Many sexual offenders have cognitive distortions, which are inaccurate beliefs that initiate, facilitate, and justify sexual offenses. Examples of such distortions include the belief that a child victim is not being harmed by the abuse or that an adult victim is partly to blame because of her or his clothing or intoxication. Social learning factors specifically examine learning processes about sexual offending. The abused–abuser hypothesis posits that some child victims of sexual abuse will themselves become sexual offenders through learning processes in which they model the same behavior as their abuser later in life. Although many sexual offenders were sexually abused as children, a majority of children who are victims of sexual abuse do not become offenders themselves. Learning can also occur through the use of pornographic materials. Sexually violent pornography—also called rape pornography—has been demonstrated to increase hostility toward women and acceptance of rape myths, indicating that some learning processes are at play. The influence of child pornography potentially involves learning processes, considering that some child molesters view child pornography. It should be noted, however, that a causal link between viewing child pornography and committing contact offenses against children has not been established. Finally, personality factors investigate the association of specific traits with sexual offending. Antisociality and psychopathic traits are frequently associated with impulsivity, anger, and lack of guilt and empathy. These factors can influence the development of deviant sexual interests and later manifest in sexual offending.

Etiological models of sexual offending integrate various biological, cognitive, learning, and personality factors to provide explanations for sexual offending. Employing a rigorous methodological approach, the work of Raymond Knight has contributed to the development of etiological models applicable to child molesters and rapists. Two paths were identified to predict sexual offending against children. The first path focused on externalized factors and emerged specifically from experiences of emotional and sexual abuse leading to sexual fantasies about children, cognitive distortions about the abuse of children, and sexual arousal to children. The second path consisted of internalized factors that emerged from the offender’s experience of emotional abuse. In the case of sexual offending against adult victims, three etiological components were important: sexualization, impulsivity, and violence. These facets were also found to correlate with sexual offenders having experienced abuse in childhood, which led to impulsivity in behaviors, hypersexuality, and aggressive sexual fantasies.

Classification

Typological studies have commonly distinguished five types of rapists. The opportunistic rapist is impulsive and predatory. There is no emotional motivation behind this offender’s sexual crimes, but the offender commits rape when situational and contextual factors present an opportunity to do so at low costs. The vindictive rapist is motivated by misogynistic anger that is exclusively directed at women. These rapists will often have conflictive relationships with a significant woman in their lives, such as a mother or a wife, and will symbolically get back at this woman by committing rape. In comparison, the pervasively angry rapist is angry throughout all aspects of life. This offender’s anger is equally oriented at men and women, and conflictive relationships are frequent. The sexually motivated rapist is motivated by a desire to obtain sexual gratification. Sexual fantasies play an integral role in the rapes committed by this offender. Finally, the sadistic rapist experiences sexual gratification when inflicting pain and humiliation on the victim. Sadistic rapes often involve degradation, mutilation, and torture of the victim but are generally infrequent.

Child molesters have typically been classified into four categories. The fixated or preferential child molester is sexually attracted to children. This type of sexual offender will often be diagnosed with pedophilic disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Because children constitute the preferred sexual partner for this type of offender, the offender will often actively pursue opportunities to commit sexual abuse against child victims and will often have a high number of victims. In comparison, the regressed child molester is not sexually attracted to children but offends against children because they are easily accessible alternatives to age-appropriate partners. Men who sexually abuse their own children may fall into this category. The exploitative/ criminalized child molester is generally involved in a variety of property and violent crimes throughout the offender’s criminal career and impulsively commits sexual assault against a child when presented with an opportunity. Finally, the aggressive/ sadistic offender is primarily motivated by anger and will execute brutal sexual acts against the sexual victim. The goal of a sadistic child molester is to hurt and humiliate the victim. This is the rarest category of child molester.

Legal Measures

One of the most enduring ideas about sexual offenders is that their behaviors cannot change and that they will continue to commit sexual crimes when released from prison. Public fear of convicted sexual offenders committing new sexual crimes has resulted in a number of legal measures developed specifically to monitor and control them. Civil commitment is a legal procedure allowing the indefinite institutionalization of offenders judged to pose a risk of sexual harm to the community. It has been applied to prevent the release of many sexual offenders at the end of their prison sentence. Instead, offenders are transferred to civil commitment institutions and kept until a court determines that they are unlikely to engage in future sexual offending. The use of ankle monitors is another example of a legal provision specific to sexual offenders. These devices track offenders’ movements using satellite GPS signal. Parole officers can be informed of offenders’ movements during their daily routines in real time or can review them at a later time. Registration and notification are other legal measures imposed on sexual offenders at release. Registration refers to a set of procedures that offenders must follow to disclose information concerning their identify and sexual conviction to law enforcement. Multiple countries have implemented registration procedures for sexual offenders, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Z ealand, and the United Kingdom. In comparison, public notification laws refer to the system by which information about registered sex offenders is transmitted to the public. This information includes a recent picture, name, current residential address, and place of employment, along with a description of the sexual offense. This information is typically communicated to the public through the Internet or using announcements in neighborhoods where offenders reside or work. The United States is the only country where information about registered sexual offenders is routinely made available to the public. Additional legal provisions frequently imposed on sexual offenders are residential restrictions and employment restrictions. These measures dictate where a registered sex offender can live and work. Examples include the prohibition to reside within a number of feet of a school or park or to work in settings where children are present. The use of a computer is also prohibited at times for some sexual offenders.

Public safety against sexual harm is often cited to justify many of the legal provisions applicable to sexual offenders. Their effectiveness has been questioned, considering that many of these measures do not reduce sexual recidivism in offenders, although their implementation and enforcement costs are high. In addition, some of these measures create difficult living conditions for sexual offenders and can hinder sexual offenders’ reintegration to the community. These measures constitute additional punishment for crimes that are socially condemned and that generate public fear.

Risk Assessment

The issue of assessing risk of sexual recidivism in sexual offenders is important considering the public concern for safety. Multiple approaches measure the risk posed by sexual offenders. Unstructured clinical judgment involves a mental health specialist reviewing the circumstances of a case and making a judgment call about the likelihood of recidivism. This method of assessing risk in sexual offenders has been criticized because of its lack of reliability. A second method involves the utilization of static actuarial assessment tools in which an empirically validated instrument is used. An actuarial instrument typically comprises only a small number of items that generate a total risk score that can be translated into a risk category. Previous research has associated each risk category with known sexual, violent, or general recidivism rates in samples of sexual offenders who have been followed over long periods of time. Generally, the people who conduct actuarial risk assessment have received formal training to learn how to code each item reliably. Multiple actuarial risk assessment tools have been developed and used on adult sexual offenders, notably the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense Recidivism, Static-99, Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide, Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool–Revised, and Vermont Assessment of Sex Offender Risk. Actuarial risk assessment tools have been found to yield more reliable results in the prediction of sexual recidivism than unstructured clinical judgment. However, these instruments are criticized because their items are static and unchangeable (e.g., number of offenses, gender of victims). The use of such static factors cannot account for changes in offenders (e.g., aging, treatment) that would reduce their likelihood of sexual recidivism. The communication of the level of risk and its interpretation can also be an issue. The third approach uses actuarial instruments including both static and dynamic factors. The assessed level of risk of sexual recidivism therefore accounts for the specific circumstances of offenders, including age, employment status, living conditions, degree of supervision, and cooperation of the offender with supervision. Examples of risk assessment tools that include dynamic factors are the Stable-2007/Acute-2007 and the Structured Risk Assessment–Forensic Version. These newer risk assessment tools do not have the same volume of empirical research backing them as do static actuarial instruments.

Risk assessment tools are used frequently in a variety of settings throughout the criminal justice system. They are used to determine sexual offenders’ sentences; to identify whether an offender should be the target of treatment specific to sexual offending; to determine the length and dosage of this treatment; and to make determinations regarding civil commitment, return to the community, and the imposition of release conditions such as registration, public notification, and residency restrictions.

Treatment

There are successful interventions to treat adult and juvenile sexual offenders, and it is possible for sexual offenders to change their behavior. A reliable approach often used to treat sexual offenders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). As its name implies, CBT focuses its therapeutic intervention on an offender’s cognition and behaviors. The cognitive aspect focuses on changing attitudes and feelings (e.g., dysfunctional thinking supportive of sexual offending). The behavioral aspect of CBT focuses on changing patterns of behaviors that are inappropriate (e.g., acting on sexual impulses). Relapse prevention is a common type of treatment that falls into the CBT category. Relapse prevention constitutes a behavioral management strategy aimed at preventing relapse in offenders over the long term by identifying risk factors that increase their likelihood of engaging in sexual offending and then developing coping strategies. It has been established in meta-analytic studies that CBT is effective at preventing sexual recidivism in both adult and juvenile sexual offenders.

A second type of treatment applied to juvenile sexual offenders is multisystemic therapy (MST). MST focuses on the family and community to prevent the perpetuation of a cycle of sexual offending. In addition to working with juvenile offenders, the therapeutic intervention of MST includes their families, schools, and communities. The goal of the intervention is to improve the supervision and disciplining of juvenile offenders and reduce their association with delinquent peers. MST has been shown to reduce recidivism and problematic sexual behaviors in juvenile sexual offenders.

Medical interventions are a third type of treatment for sexual offenders. These medical procedures can be physical or chemical in nature. Physical procedures include the removal of testicles in mechanical castration surgery. This procedure is irreversible. Chemical castration is a reversible alternative that involves hormonal therapy in which testosterone levels are lowered. Both physical and chemical interventions are aimed at the reduction of sexual drive in men who have committed sexual offenses. Only a small number of studies have investigated the effectiveness of this type of treatment on recidivism of sexual offenders and their results are inconclusive. In addition, there are important ethical considerations to these procedures. Some medical professionals consider such treatment to be punishment and are reluctant to administer it. These medical procedures call into question the respect of sexual offenders’ basic human rights.

The role of community intervention in the treatment of sexual offenders is promising. An example is the development of Circles of Support and Accountability. In Circles of Support and Accountability, a sexual offender who is released into the community is supported by an outer and an inner circle of people with the aim of preventing sexual recidivism. Members of the outer circle are professionals typically involved with sexual offenders at their release from prison, including parole or probation officers and mental health professionals. They work with members of the inner circle, who are trained volunteers from the community. These members support the offender through weekly conversations and ensure that the offender is able to find a residence and employment and to access other social services. Although not yet the object of methodologically strict evaluations, Circles of Support and Accountability appear to reduce sexual recidivism in participants.

References:

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