Relationship Between Male Childhood Sexual Victimization And Sexual Offending Of Adulthood

Studies have shown a clear correlation between childhood sexual assault (CSA) and negative sexual experiences later in life. Of relevance to the criminal justice system, these later forms of sexual victimization include sexual assault and sex work. The relationship between CSA and adverse sexual development is a correlation between two things, not a direct pathway from cause to effect. While survivors of sexual assault are at a higher risk of experiencing these later forms of victimization, this correlation represents a highly complex process involving a wide range of mediating factors and the intersections between them. Any experience of sexual assault is highly traumatic. Survivors of CSA, however, represent a unique population, because their trauma occurs near the start of the human developmental process and therefore alters all development thereafter.

Many reported offenders are male, with a history of abuse and a troubled childhood. Men are child molesters in at least ninety-seven percent of reported cases (Sanford, 83). One investigation noted eighty percent of sexual offenders had committed their first crime by age of thirty with all by the age of forty. Between 200 and 300 men are prosecuted to every one woman (Sanford, 83). Research has uncovered repeated drug and/or alcohol abuse issues among convicted predators. Lastly, sexual offenders suffer from deviant sexual behavior and attitudes (Henderson, 39).

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

A common assumption amongst those in the field of criminal justice is that most adult criminals were victims of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or neglect in their childhood. A study by Steele in 1975 found that, of 200 detained juvenile offenders, between 72% and 84% had backgrounds of child abuse (Weeks & Widom, 1998). A 1979 study by Lewis, Schanok, Pincus, and Glaser found that of a sample of male juvenile offenders, 75% had experienced childhood physical abuse. In follow-up interviews with the same subjects previously surveyed, 80% reported childhood physical abuse (Weeks & Widom, 1998). A study done by the Department of Correctional Services Research and Reporting Unit in 1983 had inmates answer a questionnaire; 25.2% of the inmates who answered the questionnaire reported childhood victimization (1998).

“A University study found 20.6% of women and 10.5% of men reported non-penetrative childhood sexual abuse by the age of 16 and that 7.9% of women and 7.5% of men reported penetrative childhood sexual abuse by the age 16 years. (Mamun, Lawlor, O’Calloghan, Bor, Williams. & Najman, 2007 Queensland University

with Research conducted on the characteristics of female sexual abusers uses three specific case examples of young girls, ages: ten, twelve, and sixteen. In two of three case examples, the girls had reported being sexually abused at a young age. The third girl, age sixteen, did not explicitly state she had been sexually abused, but has close ties with her father who is a known sex-offender,; therefore it is believed that she has been sexually abused during childhood. A review of adolescent offenders of sexual abuse, under the age of 21, shows: “Chi-square analyses showed significant associations between those who targeted children and being sexually abused or having a family member subject to sexual abuse” The study also reports that those that have experienced sexual assault at a young age, and have been reported to sexually assault other children typically have poor relationships with peers and family members in addition to experiencing two or more instances of

In terms of the female adolescent offenders that have been studied, more than half report being sexually abused themselves. This tends to be a common characteristic of male juvenile offenders as well. Childhood experiences of sexual abuse have been associated with juvenile sex offending for quite some time. Rates of juvenile sex

Violent male sex offenders reported high rates of inmate-on-inmate victimization (Beck & Johnson, 2012). The longer the time served, the more likely that the rate of sexual victimization increased. The highest rates of misconduct were reported by state prisoners who served in 5 or more facilities. Almost 44 percent of male and 74 percent of female victims reported that victimization occurred in the first prison facility

The victims of a female’s sex offender are generally younger than a man’s victim. An investigation was held in Arkansas in 1999 “and reported that 50% of their victims were categorized as 11-16 and 24% were in the 4-10 age range” (Tewksbury, 2004, p 368). Solis and Benedek mention a study that found 60% of males who reported sexual abuse had identified a female as the offender (1993). The female offenders who abuse young boys are suggested that they have a difficult time associating with adult males and they use the boys as a substitution (Solis and Benedek, 2012). This could be because of their own trauma as a child, they do not have healthy relationships with any adult male in their life. So, they go after children. It is also pointed out that females are more likely to victimize other females. One thought on why females victimize other females is because they have a male counterpart, who is attracted to females. According to Tewksbury (2004), the female offender knew the victim:

Given that this study is looking at multiple variables, it can be helpful to quantify other important characteristics that the participants have. For example, out of the 530 individuals for this study, 84.2 % did not have an offense that was sexual in nature during their juvenile years (n = 446). However, 13.7% had a history of anywhere from 1-6 sexual offenses while they were a juvenile (n = 72). This information was not gathered on 12 individuals (See appendix 2a). Another important variable of this study was identifying how many individuals were victims themselves of sexual assault at any point in their lives. This information was not gathered on 217 individuals. However, of the remaining 313 who were assessed, only 15.7% (n = 83) reported a history of being sexually assaulted at some point in their life (See appendix 2b). To break this down even further, the participants were asked about being sexually abused but only if it happened during their childhood. Out of the 412 participants that were asked about this specific criteria, 8.9% (n = 47) affirmed that they had been a victim of sexual abuse in their childhood, while 61.5% (n = 326) denied this. There were 39 individuals who were assessed but were labeled as experiencing partial abuse. The definition of partial abuse was not clearly stated or explained. These 39 individuals were still included in the study despite only partial evidence (See appendix 2c).

Types of research in Prevalence and consequences of adult sexual assault of men: Review of empirical findings and state of the literature, consisted of systematic research of empirical studies on men at ASA published in the last 25 years. The research consisted of 204 potentially relevant articles on this topic. These articles were limited by empirical articles consisting of men addressed at ASA in North America and Europe. When researching sexually abused male victims whether to use behaviorally oriented questions vs. allowing participants making their own interpretations.

The results show a correlation between the victim age and gender as significant meaning that male victims were the more likely to be chosen and when choosing female victims, they were either children, peers or adults (Worling, 1995). The sample was then divided into four groups: 27 offenders against female adolescent and adults, 29 offenders against female children; 10 of these offenders also chose female adolescent and adult victims, 12 offenders against only male children, and 19 offenders against both female and male children (Worling, 1995). Thirty seven out of 87 participants reported sexual abuse history (Worling, 1995). The results also showed statistical significance in that 75 % of adolescent sex offenders that sexually abuse male children showed a sexual abuse history as opposed to 25 % of those who sexually abused female children, peers or adults (Worling, 1995). The study also implicates that it is possible psychological trauma associated with prior sexual abuse along with learned behavior from social interaction can lead to future

Focusing specifically on male child sexual abuse survivors, a study found male survivors were more likely than female survivors to develop addictions and substance abuse challenges, sexual dysfunction, and suicidal ideation and attempts (Jaffe et al., 2011, p. 14). A meta-analysis found that adolescent boys who were sexually abused were “2 times more likely to have unprotected intercourse, and almost 5 times more likely to have pregnancy involvement than boys not sexually abused” (Scrandis, 2014, p. 707). When studied as men, Scrandis (2014 found that survivors of child sexual abuse had a:

Research conducted in the United States of America clearly identifies an interaction between victim age and abuse characteristics (USDHHS, 2003). There exists a negative correlation between the onset and prevalence of physical neglect and victim age, for instance, indicative of a young child's dependency upon the caregiver for supervision and nurture (Mash & Wolfe, 2005). The incidence of physical and emotional abuse is also most prominent during developmental periods of independence, specifically the early, pre-school and adolescent transitional stages of development (ibid). Sexual abuse has prevailed most consistently, however, from an onset of age 3 throughout childhood, highlighting the vulnerability of children across the age-spectrum (ibid). Nevertheless, victim gender is emphasised as an influential variable within the incidence and nature of sexual abuse; for females have accounted for up to 80% of reported victims and are more likely to be abused by male family members in contrast to male victims, where the perpetrator of abuse is more likely to be a non-family male offender (USDHHS, 2003; Berliner & Elliott, 2002).

Childhood sexual abuse is a worldwide concern in today's time. This type of abuse rarely results in death, but is consequences can be serious and carry on into adulthood. Childhood sexual abuse has not been strongly related to higher levels of depression , guilt, self blame, eating sickness, fear, stress, dissociative patterns, denial, sexual and relationship problems.