Of All The Violent Crimes In America, Sexual Assault Has

Roughly 79.4% of adolescent sex offenders experienced sexual abuse while only 46.7% of nonsexual offenders reported abuse (Burton, Miller, & Shills, 2002).

Victims of sexual assault suffer from a wide variety of mental and emotional issues throughout their lives as a result of the experience. Results can range from depression, anger, feelings of loneliness, and difficulty when trying to formulate relationships of trust (Hyde 45). Victims experience a wide variety of psychological issues as a result of sexual crimes, which they will have to carry with them throughout their entire lives. Also, “Psychological problems can start later in life with changes in behavior- vague fears, feeling unprotected and helpless, nightmares, bedwetting, sleeping problems, fear to loss parents approval/love, need to please others, poor self esteem, anger, depression, withdrawal from activities, daydreaming, difficulty concentrating, behavior problems” (Hyde 47).

Juvenile sex offenders as defined by Meredith Nelson of Lousiana State University“ youth ranging from puberty to the age of legal majority who commits any sexual interaction with a person of any age against the victim’s will, without consent or in an aggressive, exploitative, or threatening manner”. The juvenile sex offenders are also said to be one of a kind and very different from other delinquent and non-delinquent juveniles. Average juvenile sex

Minors are a diverse group that varies in terms of the severity of criminal acts they commit, the frequency with which they commit criminal acts, how early they begin their criminal career, and how long they commit these crimes for. For many minors, juvenile lawlessness is a short-lived flirtation that disappears as quickly as it emerges. It is common and even normal for minors to engage in trivial forms of misbehavior and delinquency as they mature through adolescence and enter adulthood. However, for some minors, juvenile lawlessness has a more troubling meaning.

Assessing an adult for sexual recidivism can be a different type of work than evaluating a juvenile, and requires a different set of risk assessment tools. That being said, adult risk assessment tools initially, and continue to inform juvenile risk assessment tools, therefore, a foundational introduction to adult risk assessment is beneficial to better understand juvenile risk assessment (Christiansen & Vincent, 2013; Collie, Ward, & Vess, 2008; Prescott, 2004). Recognizing this need for some foundational understanding of risk assessment, The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) has set forth some guidelines for adult risk assessment.

Juvenile crime is a term around the world that is difficult to pinpoint and although there are several definitions many fail to be concrete. There are many factors that play into sentencing juveniles or minors upon a crime committed. How old are they? Can they mentally form criminal intent? Are they old enough to no longer be treated as children? Some people would argue that a criminal is just that, regardless of age. Research on the other hand shows that juveniles have underdeveloped brains who at times have difficulty rationalizing decisions and weighing out consequences. It is important that these issues are addressed because of the implications this has on not only the juveniles but the community around them. These

Juvenile sex offenders are frequently treated in the same manner as their adult counterparts with regards to punishment and sex offender registering. “Nationally, juvenile sex offenders make up 20% of all individuals charged with sexual offenses (McGinnis, 2006).” Placing a sex offender label on a juvenile may unjustifiably put restrictions on his or her opportunities in adulthood so it is for this reason that cases involving juvenile sex offenders should be prosecuted cautiously. The term “sex offender”

There are many cases where juveniles have gotten their life ruined because they are convicted as being an adult. Juveniles should not be tried as adults no matter how severe the crime might appear,if and only if they did not plan the murder. There are many factors that drive a juvenile to commit a crime which they did not intend or plan. A teenager’s background is one of the major reasons why they behave erratically. The example they receive from their guardians at home has a major impactor effect as to how they think and act.

Sexual assault has been huge problem on college campus. College female students have been targets of sexual assault acts, According to Robin Gray “Between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career.” Sexual assault is when is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat. There are laws that protect women in all types of setting from being victims of sexual assault. The government had made some changes to the laws of sexual assault over the past decade to protect the girls and women so justice can be served. The president Obama has been enforcing a law for the young women in colleges.

The purpose of sex offender treatment is to alter the deviant sexual arousal patterns, addressing social skills deficits that result in deviant behavior, to challenge the beliefs that facilitate sex-offending behavior, and to develop strategies to prevent sexual reoffending. To resolve the above mentioned problems involves the use of both medication and behavioral based treatment models. Medications that are used to decrease sexual deviant behavior include synthetic progesterone derivatives such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) and cyproterone (CPA), luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist leuprolide acetate (LHRH), Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), and serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (Fong, 2006; Dolan, 2009). Dolan

According to some research that psychologists have done, they suggest that a juvenile sex offender commits sexual acts due to unsound judgments. They feel as if the offender does not look at all the information involved, unless it involves a scheme to commit a criminal act. If he decides something is true, then it must be. Most decisions he makes are damaging because they are based on ignorance, myths, and rumors.

Numerous studies have been performed on the different sex offender typologies, especially on rapists and child molesters. Rapists are offenders who have forcible sex acts with a person against the person’s will. Child molestation has been categorized as situational and preferential. A smaller category of sex offenders is the adolescent sex offender.

Sex offenders tend to blend in to society virtually unnoticed until they offend or reoffend (Polizzi, MacKenzie, & Hickman, 1999). Currently, there is a large group of mental health professionals representing a variety of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry clinical social work, counseling, and medicine, that continue to believe in the potential efficacy of treating sex offenders. Over the past decade, the sex offender treatment field has grown rapidly and the treatment of juvenile sex offenders is on the rise (Parks & Bard, 2006). The rationale for treating juvenile offenders is based on research which indicates that inappropriate sexual behavior patterns develop early and a failure to intervene and change behavior early often means that the offender will continue to escalate his/her inappropriate behavior, which could present an even greater danger to society (Ayland & West, 2006). Vivian-Bryne, (2004) suggests that professionals who treat adult sex offenders report that offenders who are incarcerated will eventually return to the community and therefore, therapeutic measures should be taken to reduce the likelihood that they will reoffend even if those measures have not conclusively been identified as effective. Sexual offenders may find therapy valuable because it can allow them to retrace their upbringing to help them identify and understand the roots of their

There is a moderate portion of juvenile law violations that are minor; however some young offenders are extremely dangerous and violent. (Caldwell, 2002) Studies have shown that most delinquent behavior stems from some sort of underlining issue or issues in a youth’s present or past history. State and county authorities must deal with these offenders while also responding to their personal social problems. This could range from child abuse and neglect, family issues and drug abuse, exposure to pornography and exposure to aggressive role models.

The treatment for sexual offenders is done in a three principal approach which is cognitive behavioral approach, psycho-educational approach, and pharmacological approach. The cognitive behavioral approach gives emphasis on altering the habits of the offended relating toward sexual offending and “deviant patterns of arousal”. (CSOM) This means altering the daily habits of the offender which may be everything they had known previously to incarceration. The second principal of psycho-educational focuses on altering the offender’s state of mind toward their victims and attempts to instill the understanding of how they inflicted harm with their actions. With psychology there is never a set time on how long a set goal will be reached. Times vary between individuals and can sometime never reach their desired outcome. In conjunction with those previous principals the offenders are also treated under the pharmacological