Factors Affecting Continuity of Sex Offending into Adulthood

What Kind of Therapy Works with Adolescents Who Have Sexually Offended?

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Today is "Giving Tuesday". If you are able, we would so appreciate a donation of any size if you have valued the work we do and the resources we provide. You can do that in three ways:

Make a secure gift now through our donation page. You can give easily via any credit card or your PayPal account.
Create a Facebook fundraiser for MASOC to give and invite your friends to support us, too! Get started now at facebook.com/fund/masocinc
Send a check made payable to MASOC to: MASOC, 201 East Street, Easthampton, MA 01027

And this month's article focuses on the risk factors for continuing problematic sexual behaviors from adolescence into adulthood. When parents are concerned about labeling their child for life and whether a child or teen will continue their behaviors, we can certainly say that the re-offense rate for children and teens is very low. But this article also offers some insights into specific risk factors that families might want to know.

As always, thank you for your own good work as well as your continued interest and support of MASOC.

Warmly

Joan Tabachnick

Executive Director

MASOC

Examining the continuity of juvenile sex offending into adulthood and subsequent patterns of

sex and general recidivism

MASOC NOVEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

By Joan Tabachnick and David Prescott

BOTTOM LINE

The most notable risk factor for continuing PSB into adulthood are non-sexual juvenile offenses.

RESEARCH

This study explores whether earlier offending behaviors in adolescence is related to subsequent offending behavior in adulthood and eventual recidivism post prison release. Overall, previous studies showed a very small percentage of adolescents will continue their sexually abusive behaviors into adulthood.

Maude Beaudry Cyr and her colleagues collected data from 495 adult male sex offenders. Their results suggest that individuals having a non-sexual offense as an adolescent in addition to juvenile sex crimes is the strongest risk factor of continuing sex offending behaviors into adulthood. Other factors that were related to sex offending continuity were being non-white (although we recognize that this is controversial and often reflects bias within the legal system), having mental health problems, and sexually abusing young children.

The authors also examined factors impacting sexual re-offense. They found a low rate of sexual offending persisting from adolescence into adulthood (only 6%). They also found, in their words, that “non-sexual juvenile offending is the most notable of the numerous risk factors found to be associated with those displaying sex offending continuity from adolescence into adulthood.”

Risk factors that did not significantly affect the odds of sex-offending continuity into adulthood were living in a two-parent home, a younger age at release, having alcohol problems, and victimizing a family member. They also found that sexually abusing outside of the family created a significantly higher risk for sexual recidivism.

The authors finally suggest in the limitation section a caveat that most articles of this size should include. They discussed how no one should assume that this data is reflective of all jurisdictions or across nations.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONALS

This study highlights the importance of taking a holistic view of adolescents and helping them to manage themselves across all domains of their lives and not exclusively their sexual behaviors. While the field has known for many years that self-regulation is an important target, this study provides a strong reminder of the centrality of interventions aimed at desisting from all crime.

Also importantly, the study again provides a reminder to be careful about how we understand being “non-white.” Given the immutable evidence of racial bias in legal systems around the world, these findings may offer insights into who is more likely to be arrested than to actually re-offend.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FIELD

Our field has a long history of focusing primarily on areas of adolescent sexuality (for example, arousal patterns or historical behaviors), often at the expense of helping them to regulate themselves across all areas of their life. History has shown that while a focus on one’s sexual behaviors is important, it is also essential to help adolescents develop a lifestyle in which crime is unnecessary and undesirable. Fortunately, MASOC Newsletter readers often excel in this area.

CITATION:

Beaudry-Cyr, M., Jennings, W. G., Zgoba, K. M., & Tewksbury, R. (2017). Examining the continuity of juvenile sex offending into adulthood and subsequent patterns of sex and general recidivism. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 61(3), 251-268.

ABSTRACT

Current sex offending legislation and public opinion present an image of sexual offenders as specialized predators who are likely to exhibit continued sexually deviant behavior over the life-course. Although sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has been independently assessed in prior research, the potential link between sex offending continuity and post-release recidivism has yet to be investigated. Using data collected at two different time points from a sample of sex offenders who served a prison sentence for an adult sex offense, the present study examines the prevalence of sex offending continuity, and its potential linkages with subsequent sex and general recidivism as well as identifying risk factors related to these outcomes. The multivariate results indicate a low rate of sex offending continuity in general but suggest the presence of identifiable risk factors that predict sex offending continuity. Specifically, non-sexual juvenile offending is the most notable of the numerous risk factors found to be associated with those displaying sex offending continuity from adolescence into adulthood. Subsequent analyses also reveal a significant association between sex offending continuity and sexual recidivism but not general recidivism. Policy implications, study limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.

If you would like a copy of the full article, please email us directly at info@masoc.net

*****

We would like to thank WIlliam James College for their generous sponsorship of the MASOC Newsletter.