Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who have committed sexual offenses are a diverse group with complex needs. Because of the nature of their deficits in communication, adaptive skills, social relationships, and cognitive capacity, such individuals may be more likely to be arrested, to confess, to be found incompetent to proceed, to plead guilty, or to be sentenced to a secure facility in response to criminal activity. Understanding the quantifiable differences between sexual offenders with and without IDD could inform and improve policies around the allocation of resources for prevention and treatment efforts for offenders with IDD. The current study seeks to elaborate on our understanding of the characteristics of sex offenders with IDD in comparison with cognitively-normal sexual offenders. A total of 245 patients with and without IDD residing in a secure forensic psychiatric hospital were selected. The sample is predominantly male (90.6%, n=222) and majority Caucasian (53.5%, n=131), African American (42.9%, n=105), and Hispanic (1.6%, n=4) with a mean age of 39.2 (SD=12.0). Participants range from persons with normal cognitive functioning (42.0%, n=103) to those with borderline intellectual functioning (17.1%, n=42), traumatic brain injury (10.2%, n=25), pervasive developmental disability (6.9%, n=17), fetal alcohol syndrome (3.7%, n=9), and IQ scores falling within the range of moderate (4.9%, n=12) and mild (15.1%, n=37) mental retardation. Participants with IDD presented with significant histories of childhood maltreatment and adversity (e.g., neglect), previous institutionalizations and out-of-home placements, and diagnosed impulse control disorders, psychotic disorders, and personality disorders. Generally, individuals with IDD were reported to express deviant sexual behavior in non-contact formats (i.e., sexual behavior that did not result in the victim being physically touched) more so than non-IDD individuals. Further, rates of deviant behavior were comparable between the two groups within community settings. However, while in residential settings those with IDD exhibited significantly more behaviors (p=0.044) than those without IDD. For the most part, the current empirical literature seemingly overlooks individuals with IDD residing in secure forensic settings. Particularly, little focus is given to the differences and similarities between individuals with various types of IDD. Understanding the clinical, behavioral, and criminal characteristics of this population could have valuable implications for the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of offenders with IDD.

No description available.

Rape and sexual assaults are a huge epidemic not only in the United States, but in the world as well. Victims come across all races, ethnicities, ages, religions, classes and cultures. With so many victims, people often investigate what causes people to commit these crimes in order to decrease the likelihood of future incidents occurring. Pornography is often argued for being a possible cause of sexual assaults. While many sex offenders do have large collections of pornography, there has not been any concrete evidence to support that pornography causes people to rape. Acceptance of rape myths also could play a large role in how people perceive the victims of sexual assaults causing them even more trauma as well as them being less likely to report the crime. With over 2000,000 cases of sexual assault reported each year, it is important to attempt to find any possible causes. The intent of this thesis is to explore any possible associations with attitudes on pornography and perceptions of rape myths. Through my analysis, the participants were asked about their attitudes of pornography and details on if they chose to view pornography or not compared with their perceptions of rape myths.

In this research study, the correlation and significance of head injuries in adult sex offenders that have committed crimes against children were measured and compared to a group of criminal offenders that have committed non-sex-related criminal offenses. Data on 30 randomly selected individuals from each of the two groups (60 individuals total) were collected to measure and compare the number of individuals with a head injury in each group. The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of why criminally deviant behaviors occur in adults. This research also hoped to encourage further research on this topic or similar topics that can lead to new ideas in prevention, intervention, and treatment plans in sex offenders.

No description available.

No description available.

Literature on families of adolescent sexual offenders is sparse. Adolescents' perception of family structure, family adaptability and cohesion, parent-child communication, and family communication about sexuality are considered in an effort to identify family characteristics that distinguish families of adolescent sex offenders (n=39) from violent juvenile delinquents (n=25), non-violent juvenile delinquents (n=41), and from non-problem families (normative data). Families of sex offenders are characterized by greater family cohesion, poorer communication with fathers than with mothers, a higher value on family sex communication, and a change in living arrangement when compared to other delinquents' families. Several variables differentiate between families of delinquents in this study and non-problem families. In general, there are some differences between families of adolescent sex offenders and other delinquents, but more dramatic differences emerge between non-problem families and all delinquent samples. Implications for practice are offered. / Master of Science

by Sarina S.F. Lam. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-48). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / TABLES OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / Chapter CHAPER I - --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / The nature of frotteurism --- p.1 / Personality of sex offenders --- p.2 / Other related constructs of personality --- p.9 / Purpose of the present research --- p.11 / Chapter CHAPTER II - --- METHODS --- p.12 / Subjects --- p.12 / Measures --- p.14 / Procedure --- p.18 / Chapter CHAPTER III - --- RESULTS --- p.18 / Background information of the subjects --- p.18 / Scores for MCMI scales --- p.22 / Analysis of MCMI code types --- p.28 / Loneliness and heterosexual variables gathered from interviews --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER IV - --- DISCUSSION --- p.33 / Background of frotteurs in the present sample --- p.33 / Personality problems and clinical syndromes of firotteurs as compared to rapists and controls --- p.35 / Group profiles interpretation --- p.36 / Loneliness and heterosexual relationship --- p.40 / "The inter - relationship of personality, loneliness and sexual offending" --- p.40 / Limitation of present research and future direction --- p.42 / REFERENCES --- p.43 / APPENDICES --- p.49

The present paper is a descriptive study of sex offender sentencing in three Oregon counties in 1992. It examines the relationship between sentencing practices and indigent offenders. It focuses specifically on the question of offender indigent status and court ordered sex offender treatment. The study also provides information about the number of sex offenders in each of the three counties, how the offenders' sentences were determined by the courts through the use of the sentencing guidelines matrix, what type of plea was used, and what if any influence indigence had in the sentencing outcomes for the felony sex off enders in this study. Viewed from a conflict theoretical perspective, it was expected that indigent sex offenders would experience differential treatment by the courts. Two-tailed chi-square tests were computed to determine if a difference exists between sentences given indigent and non-indigent offenders. The same tests were applied to determine if there exists a difference between indigent and non-indigent in regard to the addressing of treatment in the sentence order. The tests were considered significant at the . 05 level. A significant difference was found between probation sentences and prison sentences for indigent versus non indigent offenders. Frequency scores were examined for this study by the number of indigent sex offenders that were convicted in each sample county for 1992, guilt type, guilt type and sentence, sentencing guidelines matrix score, indigence and race, and treatment by county. There is minimal information on the topic of sex offenders and the possible relationship between indigence, sentence disposition and treatment. The information contained in this study will contribute to the body of knowledge in the area of sex offenders and the results of this study will provide information useful for further research.

Several risk factors have been identified for adolescent sex offenders and non-sex offenders. Such risk factors include physical and/or sexual abuse, and exposure to community and/or domestic violence. Additionally, the presence of disinhibitive factors, such as substance use and exposure to violent or pornographic media are also commonly reported in the backgrounds of both sex and non-sex offenders. Similarly, adolescent offenders have reported traumatic reactions to environmental factors such as abuse and violence. Similarities in exposure to the risk and disinhibitive factors described above between adolescent sex and non-sex offenders do not provide an explanation for why some adolescents commit sex offenses, whereas other adolescent offenders do not. This study investigated the discriminative ability of traumatic reactions as a risk factor between male adolescent sex and non-sex offenders. The inclusion of traumatic reactions increased the accuracy of risk factors distinguishing between sex and non-sex offenders. Thus, not only the presence of risk factors, but also the adolescent's reaction to the risk factors, are important predictors of whether he will commit a sexual offense.