Sex Offenders

Child molestation and sexual assault is an ever growing problem in the United States today, but an even bigger problem is that these pedophiles are being released after only serving as little as one quarter of their sentence. In California alone (at the time the bill was first passed), there was an estimated 680 individuals on parole for molestation and other sexual assaults including sodomy by force with a victim under the age of thirteen as well as child molestation with foreign objects.

About 43.9% of sex offenders identified both male and female perpetrators as opposed to 9.6% of nonsexual offenders. These individuals were exposed to more severe forms of victimization with a longer duration. Sex offenders endured an average of 5.6 years of abuse while nonsexual offenders experienced 3.9 years. Through the use of logistic regression analyses, Burton, Miller, and Shill (2002) concluded that method of operation and gender of abuser accurately predicts whether an individual will sexually offend. The analysis correctly predicted and placed 78.3% of the sex-offending males into their correct groups.

Two of the scales are the Molester Comparison, and Rapist Comparison scales (Nichols & Molinder Assessments, Inc. 2010). These scales compare the current results against the scores of known child molesters and rapists, to identify any potentially alarming similarities (Nichols & Molinder Assessments, Inc., 2010). The Psychosexual Scales on the MSI-II assess for various areas such as emotional needs, social perceptions, and cognitive distortions. Additionally, the test attempts to quantify the existence of diagnoses or mental health traits consistent with conduct disorder, sociopathy, and substance abuse. (Nichols & Molinder Assessments, Inc., 2010). The test also assesses for paraphiliac interest in child molestation, rape, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and electronic means of sexual harassment or sexual behavior such as pornography, sex chats, or sexually explicit phone calls (Nichols & Molinder Assessments, Inc., 2010). The MSI-II also attempts to quantify a given offenders use of justifications for their offense, the level of accountability an offender takes for their sexually abusive behaviors, and the level of planning they are able to recognize as it relates to their planning of their offense (Nichols &

Consider Multisystemic Therapy as an advanced treatment for adolescent sex offenders. Adolescent sex offenders are defined as prepubescent youths who engage in abusive behavior that is sexual in nature and that occurs “without consent, without equality, and as a result of coercion, manipulation, game-playing, or deception (Shawn, 199).” These adolescents do not demonstrate positive sexuality; and, therefore, require a multi-disciplinary approach that provides a high-intensity therapeutic intervention, such as Multisystemic Therapy. MST is an intensive family and community-based treatment that addresses the multiple factors of serious sexually maladaptive behavior in adolescent abusers, for the onset of sexual offending behavior in these youth can be linked to numerous factors reflected in their “experiences, exposure, and/or developmental deficits” (Hunter, 1999). Thus, treatment

questions were; the age and range of their victims, how they selected children, how they maintained them as victims and what suggestions they had for preventing child sexual abuse. The third interview was conducted six months after the second and the answers received were compared to those in the second interview to test for consistency. The offenders displayed a 90 percent consistency in the way they responded throughout the interviews.

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.

Since the early 1990s, there has not been a classification of criminals who have been subjected to more extensive legislation than sex offenders. A common belief that sex offenders posed a greater threat to reoffend compared to other types of criminals had surfaced, encouraging immediate action to protect the public from such individuals. In a short amount of time, society had implemented sex offender registration laws and sex offender notification laws in which sexual offenders would have to abide by. These innovational registration laws required sex offenders to regularly provide any identifying details, criminal history, and contact information to law enforcement authorities that would be made available to the public through the use of secluded registries exclusively for those who commit acts of sexual violence.

Although there is much attention and fascination placed on the crimes sex offenders commit, there is not substantial attention placed on the processes that occur before, during, and after a sex offender commits a crime. This process is referred to as the offense cycle and it attempts to explain the cognitive processes of sex offenders in their offensive routines. The offense cycle and goes further into the thought process, feelings, and behaviors of sex offenders as they begin their preparations for their sex crimes and the reasoning they have in continuing them. The cycle includes the key components of grooming and planning and the persistence of offending behavior which includes cognitive distortions, minimization and denial, and justification.

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 has been much debate about why people commit sexual crimes. As far as to what causes people to become sex offenders, there is no real answer to this question. No single factor can fully interpret why someone commits a sexual offense, though it is believed that some combination of factors may combine to increase sexual deviancy dramatically. These factors include biological, circumstantial, environmental, and sociocultural aspects of the person, describing the development of abnormal sexual expression through the same mechanisms by which conventional sexuality is also learned (Terry and Tallon). There are a number of sub-theories which have been designed to explain the onset of sexual deviancy. However, because no one can pinpoint the dynamics of sexual deviancy, different theories have been developed to study and account for the development of sexual aggression and behavior. An explanation of the main theories is offered below:

Sexual assault is one of the fastest growing violent crimes in America. Approximately 20% of all people charged with a sexual offense are juveniles. Among adult sex offenders, almost 50% report that their first offense occurred during their adolescence. (FBI, 1993) There are many different opinions, treatment options and legislation to manage the growing numbers of juvenile sex offenders. In today’s society the psychological and behavioral modification treatments used to manage juvenile sex offenders is also a growing concern. To understand and determine the proposed treatment methods, several related issues will need to be reviewed such as traditional sex offender therapy methods like cognitive therapy and alternative therapies like

When working with this specific population mental health professionals are often called on to evaluate and manage sex offender’s behavior. There are also times when individuals may be asked to give an opinion as to if the offender will repeat the behavior. Often times people that work with this population are referred to as (SOSs) Sex Offender Specialists. They have a specific group of diverse training and background. Some of these trainings incIude but are not limited to cognitive-behavioral, psychopharmacological, and therapeutic orientations.

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

In 2005, Lösel & Schmucker conducted a meta-analysis of sexual offender treatment. Featuring 69 studies containing 80 independent comparisons between treated and untreated offenders. treated offenders showed 37% less sexual recidivism compared to the control groups. Organic treatments such as

Sex offenses receive an inordinate amount of special attention from the public as well as the criminal justice system. Is this because our system is a static reflection of the society/community they answer to? Sexual offense stories infiltrate every membrane of our society, from legal mores to norms, from social media to religion. Our system of justice can’t help but deliver attention to this area. Justice demands it and society needs it for interpersonal validation. The Criminal Justice system has given humans a scale to rate what is normal and what is deviant. Our text (Okada. p.182) shares that