Child sexual assault is a problem of epidemic proportions in the United States with some research suggesting up to one fifth of our nations children being victimized before reaching adulthood. Research has suggested females could be responsible for up to 20% of child sexual abuse cases, and at the same time only represent only 1% of sexual offenders incarcerated the US. This creates a situation where a large group of relatively under-researched offenders are evading detection. Numerous calls for further research have been made, but relatively few studies have had the ability to shed significant light on this phenomenon on a national level. This project utilizes a dataset of virtually every reported child protective services case in the United States for the fiscal year 2010 in order to investigate the dynamics of perpetrator gender on child sexual offending in substantiated cases. Offense characteristics, as well as case level components, were assessed to investigate not only the differences in offending behavior but also the ways gender affects how offenders enter and exit our child protective systems and the services they receive while there. Extensive differences were uncovered as related to perpetrator gender. Models were informed by the female sexual offending literature. Practice and policy implications are discussed.

Les crimes sexuels génèrent beaucoup d’inquiétudes chez la société, particulièrement quand vient le temps de libérer certains délinquants sexuels à risque élevé de récidive. Les évaluations du risque sont ainsi pertinentes puisque la majorité des délinquants sexuels sont libérés suivant une peine d’emprisonnement déterminée (Wilson, Picheca and Prinzo, 2005). Certaines méthodes sont donc mises en place servant à gérer les délinquants sexuels en communauté. Un cadre légal impose certaines conditions de remise en liberté et vise à réduire le risque de récidive (Hanson and Morton-Bourgon, 2005). Toutefois, une fois leur sentence complétée, certains délinquants posent toujours un risque pour la société. Pour répondre à ce problème, des partenariats ont été développés au Québec entre les services correctionnels et policiers. Ils imposent une surveillance accrue des personnes à risque élevé de récidive (PRER). Les décisions qui sont prises peuvent être lourdes de conséquences. Il est donc important d’évaluer si les méthodes de ciblage sont efficaces, soit orientées vers les individus à haut risque de récidive. Les données utilisées dans le cadre de ce mémoire proviennent de deux sources. Premièrement, un échantillon comparatif issu d’une compilation de données comprenant l’ensemble des délinquants sexuels condamnés depuis 20 ans a été utilisé (n = 235). Puis, un registre développé depuis 10 ans regroupant l’ensemble des individus soumis au programme a été analysé (n = 235). Les participants ont été évalués en fonction des variables disponibles de la Statique-99R. L’utilité de l’outil pour la police a été mise en perspective. Le programme ne semble pas n’impliquer que des délinquants sexuels à haut risque de récidive. Les taux de récidive sont relativement bas et similaires dans les deux échantillons. Les services de police ont des données pertinentes qui permettent d’étudier la qualité du ciblage fait dans le cadre du programme. Des évaluations plus fiables pourraient améliorer l’allocation des ressources et les stratégies de ciblage. / Sexual crimes generate concerns among the population, particularly when certain high-risk offenders are released. Risk evaluations are therefore relevant, since the majority of such offenders will receive sentences of limited duration and be released later on (Wilson, Picheca and Prinzo, 2005). Methods are set in place in order to manage sex offenders in communities. A legal framework imposes an increased monitoring of sex offenders ending their sentence in the community and, by that, aims at reducing the risk of recidivism (Hanson and Morton-Bourgon, 2005). However, once the term of their incarceration completed, some offenders still pose a risk to society. In order to address this problem, partnerships have been established in Quebec between correctional and police services. They are intended to keep these individuals under surveillance in order to reduce the danger they represent (Yessine and Bonta, 2006). Decisions made in regard to these police prioritized targets can cause serious consequences to society. It is therefore relevant to assess whether targeting methods adopted by police and correctional services are effective; that is, can they accurately assess the risk of recidivism for each individual and are do they include only high risk sex offenders. The data used for this study came from two sources. First, a comparative sample coming from a compilation of data that brings together all sexual assaults events leading to official charges (n = 235) was used. Second, a registry developed over a period of 10 years under three police surveillance programs (n = 235) was analysed. Data from the two groups have been subjected to ratings on the available items of the Static-99R in order to tests its potential uses for police surveillance. Police surveillance programs are not optimally directed towards high-risk sexual offenders. Recidivism rates are low and similar in both samples. Police agencies have relevant data that can be use to assess the quality of targeting methods. More reliable evaluations could allow for the improved allocation of resources and targeting strategies.

This thesis examines the ways American visual media -television and mainstream/independent cinema- has presented the narrative of child sexual abuse since the beginning of the 21st century. Due to the rise of the counterculture movement and the sexual revolution of the 1960s, a discourse for talking about child sexuality was created. By providing an opportunity to discuss children and sex, for the first time cultural products could deal overtly with child sexual abuse, rather than connotatively. In response to this new discourse, conservative ideals about child sexuality proliferated in the 1970s and 1980s that attempted to return the child to a world of purity and asexuality with all threats to this purity being monstrous. The examples discussed in this thesis highlight the ways that contemporary American visual media has responded to three decades of obsession that created a "master narrative" of child sexual abuse - something that continues to play a significant role in society.

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is recognized as a public health problem with consequences affecting all levels of the ecological model. In recent years it has been recognized that up to 40% of reported sexual offenses occur at the hands of adolescent offenders (Burton, 2000), who are defined as children aged 12-18 years. In recent years, research has suggested that attachment deficits contribute to sexual offending behavior in adolescence. The current study augments the sparse research with adolescent offenders and by exploring of the participant's perceived attachment to important others (mother/mother figures, father/father figures, and peers/friends). Participants included 101 Juvenile sex offenders (JSO) and 97 Juvenile Delinquents (JD) detained in Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) facilities during the summer of 2010. Significant differences were found in adolescents' attachment to father/father figures in both overall attachment and a perceived degree of trust. Additionally JSO also showed a higher level of alienation from father/father figures and lower in overall perceived degree of trust with all important others. These findings may provide an opportunity for early intervention strategies, as well as support programs designed to strengthen or develop connections between adolescent offenders and positive male role models to enhance the effectiveness of juvenile sex offender treatment.

Les objectifs du présent mémoire étaient d’identifier les dimensions présentes dans la Statique-99R, l’échelle actuarielle de prédiction de la récidive sexuelle la plus utilisée, et de tester leur validité prédictive. Une analyse factorielle exploratoire des items de l’instrument en a extrait trois dimensions : la déviance sexuelle, l’orientation antisociale et le détachement émotionnel. Des analyses de régressions de Cox ont révélé que ces facteurs affichaient une validité prédictive différentielle; la déviance sexuelle ne prédisait que la récidive sexuelle, alors que l’orientation antisociale ne prédisait que la récidive violente non sexuelle et la récidive générale. Le détachement émotionnel affichait une validité prédictive incohérente. Des analyses de courbes ROC ont indiqué que la dernière révision de la Statique-99, la Statique-99R, surpassait pratiquement en tout point son prédécesseur. Ces mêmes analyses indiquaient que la validité prédictive de l’échelle était similaire pour les agresseurs sexuels de femmes et d’enfants. / The aims of the current paper were to identify dimensions of the Static-99R, the most commonly used sex-offender actuarial scale, and to test their predictive validity. Exploratory factor analysis extracted three dimensions from the scale: sexual deviance, antisocial orientation and detachment. Cox regression analyses revealed that different actuarial factors predicted different recidivism outcomes: sexual deviance only predicted sexual recidivism, while antisocial orientation only predicted non sexual violent recidivism and general recidivism. Detachment had an inconsistent predictive validity. ROC curve analyses indicated that the latest Static-99 revision, the Static-99R, outperformed its predecessor in virtually every way. These same analyses revealed that the scale was as effective with rapists as with child molesters.

Le présent mémoire cherche à déterminer s’il existe des facteurs qui conduisent aux aveux chez les agresseurs sexuels durant un interrogatoire. Dans ce but, notre étude est basée sur 183 dossiers d’agression sexuelle traités par le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. Les 137 participants qui ont fait une ou deux victimes (un dossier par victime) étaient âgés de 15 à 71 ans au moment du crime, et sont majoritairement francophones, caucasien et sans emploi. Toutes les variables sélectionnées ont été divisées en trois catégories : les caractéristiques de l’agresseur, les caractéristiques du crime et les caractéristiques contextuelles de l’interrogatoire. Les agresseurs sexuels qui ont avoué leur crime avaient les caractéristiques suivantes : caucasien, célibataire, n’ayant pas utilisé la menace ni causé de blessures, la victime était un garçon ou une femme adulte. Il n’y avait, contre eux, ni preuves matérielles ou biologiques, ni présence de sperme sur la victime, et il n’y a pas eu de séance d’identification. De plus, ils ont subi plusieurs interrogatoires, souvent dans un bureau privé en présence d’un seul interrogateur, qui n’est pas l’enquêteur principal, mais ils ont écrit et signé leur déclaration. Ces résultats devraient aider les policiers à cibler les facteurs les plus favorables aux aveux tout en montrant qu’il s’agit généralement d’un ensemble de facteurs qui conduisent les agresseurs sexuels aux aveux lors d’un interrogatoire. / This study seeks to determine whether there are factors that lead to the confession in sex offenders, during an interrogation. For this purpose, the study is based on 183 cases of sexual abuse handled by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. The 137 participants who made one or two victims (one file for each victim) were aged from 15 to 71 years old at the time of crime, and are mostly French-speaking, Caucasians and unemployed. All selected variables were divided into three categories: characteristics of the sex offender, characteristics of the crime and characteristics of the context of the interviews. Sex offenders who have confessed their crime had the following characteristics: Caucasian, unmarried, who did not use threat, who did not commit injuries and their victim was a young male or an adult female. Against them, there were no physical evidence, nor biological evidence, nor the presence of semen on the victim, and there was no identification parade. In addition, they have had several interviews, often in a private office with a single interrogator who isn’t the principal inspector, but they wrote and signed their statement. These results should help the police to identify the factors most favorable to confession, showing that it’s usually a combination of factors that lead sex offenders to confession during an interrogation.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A multi-regression analysis was performed utilizing the variables, age, ethnicity, criminal background, and facets of treatment, but differentiated between the rapist and pedophile, examining the variance of recidivism.

Syftet med förekommande studie var att undersöka om polisens attityder till två olika typer av brottslingar, ekobrottslingar respektive sexualbrottslingar skiljde sig åt och om attityden till dessa brottslingar påverkade deras inställning till vilken förhörsstil som borde användas samt om polisen förespråkade en mer dominant förhörsstil vid förhör med misstänkta för sexualbrott jämfört med misstänkta för ekobrott. För att kunna besvara studiens frågeställningar användes en kvantitativ metod med en mellangruppsdesign. En webbenkät i två olika versioner användes, en för ekobrottslingar och en för sexualbrottslingar. Varje enkät bestod sedan av två delar, en som avsåg attityder och en som avsåg förhör. 55 poliser deltog i studien och fördelades genom ett slumpmässigt urval till respektive betingelse. Resultaten visade att det inte fanns några signifikanta skillnader i polisens attityder till ekobrottslingar respektive sexualbrottslingar, inte heller förespråkade polisen en specifik förhörsstil för någon av brottstyperna. Dock visade resultaten på en signifikant prediktion mellan attityd och förhörsstil när det gäller sexualbrottslingar men inte för ekobrottslingar, vilket innebär att attityd predicerar förhörsstilen för sexualbrottslingar men inte för ekobrottslingar. / The purpose of this study was to investigate whether police attitudes towards two different types of offenders, economic offenders and sex offenders differed and whether the attitudes towards these offenders influenced their choice of interrogation style and if the police advocated a more dominant interrogation style when questioning suspects for sexual offences compared to suspects of economic offences. In order to answer the study's questions, a quantitative method was used with a between group design. One online survey in two different versions were used, one for economic offenders and one for sex offenders. Each survey then consisted of two parts, one related to attitudes and one related to interrogation. 55 police officers participated in the study and were distributed by random sampling to each condition. The results showed that there were no significant differences in police officer´s attitudes between economic offenders and sexual offenders, nor did the police officer´s advocate a certain interrogation style for any of the crime types. But the results showed a significant prediction between attitude and interrogation style when it comes to sex offenders but not to economic offenders, which means that attitude predict the interrogation style for sex offenders but not for economic offenders.

The aim of the study was to examine social workers experiences regarding the relationship between emotional labor and professional approach as well as the importance of the professional approach to sexual offenders. The used method was a qualitative interview study with a targeted selection of seven social workers who had experiences of working with sexual offenders. The study was implemented by semi-structured interviews and the emipirical data was analyzed through a thematic analysis. The study’s result showed that a professional approach was indeed a important part of their work, especially when it came to being objective and respectful despite the clients violent crimes of a sexual nature. It was also found that the social workers felt that the professional approach could be affected by the emotional challenges that came with their work. The social workers used strategies to maintain their professional approach in situations that were found emotionally challenging. / Studien syftade till att undersöka socialarbetares erfarenheter gällande relationen mellan emotionellt arbete och professionellt förhållningssätt samt vilken betydelse de upplever att ett professionellt förhållningssätt har, i arbetet med utövare av sexuellt våld. Som metod användes en kvalitativ intervjustudie med ett målstyrt urval av sju socialarbetare med erfarenhet att arbeta med utövare av sexuellt våld. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och insamlade data analyserades genom tematisk analys. Resultatet visade att socialarbetarna ansåg att ett professionellt förhållningssätt var viktigt i deras arbeten och detta genom bland annat att vara objektiv och respektfull trots klienternas våldsbrott av sexuell karaktär. Det framkom även att socialarbetarna upplevde att det professionella förhållningssättet kunde påverkas av de känslomässiga utmaningar som kom med arbetet. Socialarbetarna använde sig av strategier för att bibehålla det professionella förhållningssättet i känslomässigt utmanande situationer.