Thesis (Ph.D.)--Alliant International University, California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco, 2007. / Includes bibliographic references (121-128) and abstract.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 28, 2010). Advisor: Donald Bubenzer. Keywords: adolescent sexual offender treatment; adolescent; sexual offender treatment; honesty; clinicians' beliefs. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-197).

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / On cover: Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

No description available.

In-depth interviews and psychometric tests were conducted with 20 young, South African male, hands-on sex offenders, between the ages of seven and 15 years. These offenders were referred by both the legal system and the welfare and health system. The data was gathered for the purpose of drawing up a descriptive profile of salient psychological and sociological characteristics of this population group, the patterns of offenses, the circumstances under which the offenses occurred and victims selected. Results showed that half the sample had committed prior sex offenses. The majority of young sex offenders had a history of consenting sexual interactions, had committed a non-sexual offense and engaged in a range of other antisocial behaviours. Half the sample reported a history of physical or sexual abuse (under-reporting of such victimization experiences was suspected). Typically, the young sex offender w:~s sexually naive and had not received any suitable sex education. He was usually a scholar although his school attendance was often infrequent and he was likely to have failed one or more standards. His intelligence quotient was most likely to fall in or below the borderline range of functioning. He tended to be either socially isolated and socially anxious or alternatively reported having a number of friends and appeared to have adequate social skills. His home environment was typically characterized by overcrowding, alcohol abuse and domestic violence. A significant male relative of his was likely to have committed a criminal offense. In his community environment, he regularly witnessed violence and sexual activity. The sex offenses were usually carried out with a co-perpetrator in a variety of venues. The victim was usually known and younger (mean age = seven years) than the perpetrator (mean age = 12 years). The overall results suggest that young sex offenders commit an array of sexual offenses that do not represent sexual experimentation, but rather indicate a developing pattern of sexual deviance. Comparisons between the above profile and the literature findings are explored. Finally, recommendations for structural changes, assessment procedures, additional future research pessibilities and guidelines for the development of appropriate - treatment programmes are outlined.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-30, 41-51, 66-70).

Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / It is generally accepted that pre-teen sexual offences are becoming a widespread problem in South Africa and social workers are ill-equipped to render a competent service to prevent these youth offenders from re-offending. To date, the social, judicial and legislative systems do not provide any definite guidelines to prevent pre-teen sexual offenders from re-offending. The purpose of this study was to present guidelines which could serve as a framework when designing prevention programmes for pre-teen sex offenders. With the results of the study an attempt will be made to augment the knowledge and skills in this area in the social service delivery system, in order to render a professional and effective service to prevent pre-teen sexual offenders from reoffending. The objectives of the study were: first, to explain policy under the South African criminal justice system regarding crime according to the Sexual Offences Act, no 23 of 1957, and the Child Care Act, no 74 of 1983, as well as government and non-government services available to children under the age of 13 who sexually offend; second, to describe the social and personal circumstances of pre-teen sexual offenders in order to illustrate the nature of the deviant sexual behaviour of these children and to determine the need for prevention programmes; third, to reflect on the nature and function of prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders and to investigate the need for social workers to utilize these programmes in welfare agencies in South Africa; fourth, to determine the nature of social work programmes which social workers in welfare agencies are using to address the needs and/or problems of pre-teen sexual offenders; and finally, to describe the knowledge and practice skills needed by social workers to design prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders. The literature review was focused on research findings relating to issues examined in this study. An exploratory research design for the study was confined to a purposive sample of 79 respondents who were identified from a universe of 130 social workers to assess their need to develop prevention programmes in order to render a competent service to pre-teen sex offenders and their families. The results were analysed mainly quantitatively. The empirical study enabled the researcher to draw certain conclusions. The main finding was that pre-teen sex offences were on the increase, and that social workers therefore required ever greater knowledge and skills to empower them to use existing prevention of re-offending programmes for preteen sexual offenders, or alternatively, needed to develop their own such programmes. A number of recommendations flowed from the findings. The main recommendation was that welfare organisations rendering child care service should ensure that social workers have at their disposal a diverse knowledge and skills base consisting of the most significant prevention models and approaches to enable them to design their own prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders. The welfare organisations should further supply social workers with training opportunities to enable them to design prevention programmes, thereby empowering them to render a professional service to pre-teen sexual offenders and their families. Finally, preventing pre-teen sex offenders from reoffending should be a state-driven initiative and national and provincial governments should provide adequate policies and facilities for the implementation of prevention programmes for pre-teen sexual offenders.

Traditionally, juvenile sex offenders have been ignored in the literature. More recently the research has expanded particularly in the area of assessment and treatment. This study focused on the assessment of sexual arousal to deviant stimuli using the penile plethysmography (PPG) since it likely plays a significant role in juvenile sex offending behaviors. The goal of this study assessed its validity and reliability using Becker et al.'s set of PPG scenarios with a population of juvenile sex offenders. Significant differences were found between groups of (a) admitters versus partial admitters and (b) offenders with and without male victims. This study also examined the latent structure of the PPG results and found three dimensions: arousal to male stimuli, arousal to females and paraphilias, and arousal to non-sexual acts. These findings provide important implications for assessment of juvenile sex offenders and add to the clinical utility of PPG assessments.

In this dissertation, I present three manuscripts to investigate the prevention of a range of crimes committed against, and by, youth, using parental monitoring or guardianship. In the first paper, I tested whether the routine activities of juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs) and their victims' caregivers was associated with the JSO being placed into a supervisory role, and whether subgroup differences existed in the use of modus operandi strategies between JSO supervisors and non-supervisors (Chapter II). Findings indicated that parents' need for childcare assistance predicted JSO supervisor status more strongly than perpetrators efforts to get the child alone or disruptions to parents' lives. Furthermore, JSOs acting as a temporary caregiver to the child they abused was associated with more frequent use of modus operandi strategies overall and more frequent use of bribes and enticements to gain their victims' compliance. There were no differences between JSO supervisors and non-supervisors on the threats and coercion modus operandi (MO) subscale, and moderators between JSO supervisor status and strategic grooming strategies were not found to be significantly related. The second paper used a series of MANCOVAs to investigate whether differences in parental monitoring exist between JSOs, Juvenile Delinquent (JDs) nonsexual offenders, and non-offending Juvenile Controls (JCs; Chapter III). Findings suggest that JSOs report lower parental knowledge, parental solicitation, and parental control, compared to JCs, but for certain items, they report higher levels of all three compared to JDs. They also differed from JDs such that they reported lower levels of perceived parental monitoring. Finally, the third study focused on the development of a quantitative scale measuring technology-based parental monitoring (Chapter IV). The resulting measure will help future researchers determine whether parents' engagement with different forms of technology to communicate with their youth leads to differential outcomes for those youth, such as decreased delinquency and victimization. In sum, the first study investigates how JSOs end up in supervisory roles, and how their MO differs from non-supervisors, the second study looks at differences in parental monitoring between JSOs, juvenile non-sexual offenders, and community controls, and the third study described the development of a measure of technology-based parental monitoring. This dissertation is the first to apply both psychological and criminological perspectives to the prevention of youth offending and victimization through monitoring and other related concepts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-44). Also available on the Internet.