No description available.

No description available.

This thesis examined the effect of age on sexually offensive behaviour. Research has noted both an increase in the average age of incarcerated offenders and that a higher percentage of older offenders are incarcerated for sexual offences than are younger offenders. Older sexual offenders were initially compared with younger offenders on offender and offence characteristics and these analyses revealed that older sexual offenders had a higher incidence of male victims, a younger victim age, and more intra-familial victims. Phallometric assessments of all sexual offenders were then examined to see whether sexual deviance may account for the differences found between older and younger sexual offenders in victim age and gender. These analyses revealed that the oldest and youngest offenders were more deviant than middle-aged sexual offenders and that the sexual interests of older offenders were more commonly for females. Finally, all subjects were classified as either Historical (offending had ceased, without judicial intervention, at least 7 years prior to incarceration), First-time (incarcerated for a recent sexual offence and no history of sexual offending), or Recidivist sexual offenders (currently incarcerated for a sexual offence and have at least one prior sentencing date for any sexual offence): age accounted for 12% of the variance in categorisation. Fifty-five percent of the sexual offenders age 60 years or more were found to have committed and ceased their offending at least seven years prior to incarceration (i.e., were Historical offenders). The percentage of Recidivist offenders remained relatively consistent across age groups at about 20%. No difference was found in phallometrically assessed sexual deviance between the groups of older offenders. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-07-29 11:40:51.234

No description available.

No description available.

Youth offending is an increasingly major problem in many countries and cultures. Several theories imply that a subset of young people display delinquent behaviour at a young age and go on to have an extensive and serious criminal career. Recently, there has been interest in the literature in identifying these young people early on and carrying out interventions in order to deter them from a criminal career. Many studies have examined the development and usefulness of actuarial measures of risk of future violence or recidivism in adult offenders. However, the same attention has not been paid to the youth offender population. The present study gathered data from the population (N = 4307) of all young persons in New Zealand whose antisocial behaviour resulted in a Youth Justice intake from the Department of Child, Youth, and Family (CYF) in 2002. Information was obtained about this population from the CYF database, CYRAS, and from the Police National Intelligence Application database for a stratified random sample (N = 500). Three models were developed using Hierarchical Cox regression to predict recidivism, and they each used a different definition of recidivism. The performance of the models was assessed using ROC analysis and they were found to predict recidivism with a moderately good level of accuracy. A validation sample (N = 500), different from the sample on which the models were developed, was used to further assess the performance of the models by showing that they were able to generalize to a new data set and continue to perform at an adequate level. An actuarial model, like the one developed in the present study, could be used to help make decisions about which young people within the Youth Justice System require intervention in order to reduce the likelihood of subsequent reoffending.

This dissertation contains three essays analyzing how institutions affect punishment choices and levels of offending. / Economics

Understanding the risk factors that contribute to sexual offending against children is an important topic for research. The present study set out to examine whether deficits in emotion recognition might contribute to sexual offending, by testing if child sexual offenders were impaired in their recognition of facial expressions of emotion, particularly with children, relative to non-offender controls. To do this, we tested 49 child sexual offenders and 46 non-offender controls on their ability to recognise facial expressions of emotion using photographs of both adults and children posing emotions from the Radboud Faces Database (Langner et al., 2010). We created continua along six emotion pairs (e.g. happiness-sadness) in 10% increments, from the emotions of sadness, anger, happiness, and fear, with morphing software. Using signal detection analyses, we found that across the emotion pairs, non-offenders were significantly better able to discriminate between emotions than offenders, although there were no significant differences within individual emotion pairs, and was not significant with either age or level of education as a covariate. When discriminating between fear and anger, non-offenders showed a significant bias towards labeling an emotion as fear when judging male faces, whereas offenders did not, and this difference remained significant with age, level of education and socioeconomic status as covariates. Additionally, both groups showed a strong bias towards labeling an emotion as anger when judging female faces. Thus sexual offenders were more likely to identify anger rather than fear with male faces, suggesting that sexual offenders lack an inhibition against recognising anger in males that non-offenders showed. Overall, contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence to indicate that child sexual offenders showed a specific deficit in their recognition of emotions in children. However, future research should continue to examine this area and its potential link to recidivism.

Youth offending is an increasingly major problem in many countries and cultures. Several theories imply that a subset of young people display delinquent behaviour at a young age and go on to have an extensive and serious criminal career. Recently, there has been interest in the literature in identifying these young people early on and carrying out interventions in order to deter them from a criminal career. Many studies have examined the development and usefulness of actuarial measures of risk of future violence or recidivism in adult offenders. However, the same attention has not been paid to the youth offender population. The present study gathered data from the population (N = 4307) of all young persons in New Zealand whose antisocial behaviour resulted in a Youth Justice intake from the Department of Child, Youth, and Family (CYF) in 2002. Information was obtained about this population from the CYF database, CYRAS, and from the Police National Intelligence Application database for a stratified random sample (N = 500). Three models were developed using Hierarchical Cox regression to predict recidivism, and they each used a different definition of recidivism. The performance of the models was assessed using ROC analysis and they were found to predict recidivism with a moderately good level of accuracy. A validation sample (N = 500), different from the sample on which the models were developed, was used to further assess the performance of the models by showing that they were able to generalize to a new data set and continue to perform at an adequate level. An actuarial model, like the one developed in the present study, could be used to help make decisions about which young people within the Youth Justice System require intervention in order to reduce the likelihood of subsequent reoffending.

Juveniles adjudicated for sexual offenses are often described as homogenous, collectively viewed as inherently dangerous, and subject to specialized legal and clinical interventions. However, empirical studies have identified several typologies suggesting that juveniles adjudicated for sexual offenses are a heterogeneous group with varying degrees of risk and treatment needs. The purpose of this non-experimental between-groups study was to compare family composition, abuse histories, mental health diagnosis, and offense type among a victim age-based typology of juvenile sexual offenders. The theoretical framework that guided this study was developmental-contextual theory. Archival data (N = 105) were collected from Alberta Health Services in Alberta, Canada. Results of chi-square analysis indicated a statistically significant difference among these 2 groups with respect to family composition and offense type. The groups did not differ with respect to abuse histories or mental health diagnosis. Findings may be used to expand the current knowledge base regarding risk factors for youths who offend sexually, to develop preventative programs and treatment programs, to increase community safety, and to reduce the stigma associated with juvenile sexual offending.