1. Sexual Offenders
Chapter 6

2. What is a sexual offender?
Sexual assault is usually defined as the “use of force or threat to compel sexual acts”
sexual offenders are a highly heterogeneous group
Rapists
Child molesters
Exhibitionist
Frotteurist
Voyeur

3. Paraphilia
Recurrent, intense sexual arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors generally involving
non human objects
suffering or humiliation of oneself or partner
children or other non-consenting persons
Occurs over a period of 6 months
Focus of sexual arousal

4. Terminology Child molester Pedophile
any adult who has perpetrated a sexual crime against someone under the age of consent (generally around years of age)
Pedophile
someone involved in sexual activity or experiencing significant stress over sexual urges or fantasies involving a prepubescent child (usually under 13)

5. Assessment of Sexual Offenders
Phallometric Measures
Physiological device that records deviant response patterns and usually consists of
stimuli, monitoring equipment, and recording instruments
Underlying notion was that sex offenders are motivated to engage in their antisocial behavior by their deviant preferences
Accuracy of measures has been challenged

6. Psychological Assessment
Cognitive distortions
Self-serving thoughts patterns that reduce normal barriers to committing acts
Victim Empathy
Sexual Fantasies

7. Identification of Risk Factors
Meta-analyses on sexual offending have identified several interesting findings
Strongest predictor of sexual recidivism is phallometric responses toward children and deviant preferences
Empathy for victims, denial of sexual offense, low motivation for treatment, and sexual abuse as a child were unrelated to sexual recidivism
Sexual offenders are less likely to recidivate for sexual offenses than non sexual offenses
Sexual recidivism rates vary with time: 10-15% after 5 years, 20% after 10 years, and 30-40% after 20 years
these are likely underestimates

8. Risk Assessment Instruments for Sex Offenders
SVR-20
SORAG
Static-99
Made up of parts of the RRASOR and Structured Actuarial Clinical Judgment

9. Treatment and Management of Sexual Offenders
Are Sexual Offender Treatment Programs Successful?
Hanson et al. (2002) found 12.3% sexual recidivism rates for treated sex offenders and 16.8% for untreated sex offenders
Many problems with sex offender treatment literature
Poor comparison groups
Small number of studies
Poor research designs

10. Components of Potentially Successful Programs
Cognitive-behavioral
denial and minimization, crime specific distortions, victim empathy
Target underlying deficits
self-esteem, social skills, anger, drinking, assertiveness, social perception, performance evaluation, and intimacy deficits
Relapse prevention
Pharmacological

11. Special Groups of Sexual Offenders
Juvenile Sex Offenders
almost 20% of those arrested for sexual assault are below 18
general recidivism is much higher
tend to engage in a variety of nonsexual antisocial behavior
commit a wide range of sex offenses
many adult sex offenders start in adolescence
little is known about female juvenile sex offenders

12. Female Sex Offenders
Compose less than 2% of all sex offenders and less than 2% of all female offenders
Between 6-60% of female victims and 14-27% of male victims report a female perpetrator
Underreporting makes study difficult and most studies have small sample sizes
Higher rates of sexual abuse, trauma, psychopathology
Little research on exclusive treatment of female sex offenders

13. Clergy as Sexual Offenders
John Jay Report: confidential, population-based survey of diocese, clergy, and victims
3-6% perpetration rates among Catholic clergy across diocese, 4% overall
most allegations were against parish priests
most are at the time of the first allegation
1/3 had substance abuse problems
6.8% reported they had been abused
About 3% had 10+ allegations
Police investigated 15%, 5% were criminally charged, and 2 % convicted
40% of incidents occurred in home or parish residence

14. Sexual Offender Legislation
Registration & Notification Laws
Check-in with local law enforcement
Residency Laws
Prohibit offenders from living with certain distances of areas deemed high risk
Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) Laws
intended to continue a sex offender’s confinement if mentally ill and dangerous
usually aimed at the most dangerous