Lecture 5: Sex Offenders Flashcards
How prevalent is child sexual abuse for boys and girls?
Child sexual abuse (CSA) experienced by:
- 10-25% of girls worldwide
- 5-25% of boys worldwide
How prevalent is adult sexual abuse for men and women?
Adult sexual abuse (ASA) experienced by :
- 8 to 24% of women
- 0.6 to 7% for men
What groups are more at risk for sexual abuse?
Some groups are more at risk: -Persons with disabilities -Sex workers -Foster care -LGBTQ2 -Homelessness Prevalence differ across countries
What are the official rates in Canada?
- Between 2009 and 2014: 117,238 police-reported sexual assault incidents in Canada
- Since 1999, the rates of victimization for sexual assault have remained stable
- When an accused is identified, 69% resulted in a charge being laid (physical assault = 65%)
- 12% sexual assaults reported by police led to a criminal conviction (physical assault = 23%)
Is sexual abuse increasing or declining?
Self-report victimization surveys and official sources show decreases in sexual victimization in the 1990s
Why?
- Aging population
- Obesity and other health-related issues
- Economic prosperity in 1990s
- Better sex offender management and treatment
- Cultural and Societal Changes (End of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll, Awareness: children supervised differently,
Consent and sex education)
What is the relationship between consent and alcohol abuse?
- Research has suggested that half of all victims and perpetrators had been drinking beforehand.
- Role of sex education.
SA victimization increases risk for long-lasting deleterious effects on…
- Mental and physical health
- Behavioral health
- Revictimization (sexual and physical)
- Sexual and nonsexual criminal offending
What is the cost of SA victimization?
- USA: Estimated annual economic burden of CSA is approximately $11 billion
- Estimated average lifetime cost = $323,736 US per female victim of nonfatal CSA
- Lacked data to estimate the cost for male victims of nonfatal CSA
what is the focus on for sexual offenders?
- Focus is on punishment and social control
- lengthy sentences
- Indeterminate sentences (Dangerous Offender, Civil commitment)
- registration & notification
- residence, employment & education restrictions
- Intensive supervision
What is the typical profile of a sex offender in Canada?
Most offenders are young - based on official rates (12-17 years old = 90 per 100 000, 18-34 years old = 55 per 100 000)
- Majority (69.1%) are Caucasian (23% Aboriginal)
-Most offenders who victimize children are known
1/3 by family members
-Remaining are acquaintances
-Few are stranger (7%-15% for kids, 15%-25% for women)
(Stranger: did not know the assailant 24 hours before the assault )
-Most offenders are males (90-97%)
What is the heterogeneity among sex offenders?
- Offender Age (young, elderly)
- Victim Type (age, gender)
- Victim Relationship (stranger, related)
- Competence (cognitive impaired, socially skilled)
- Work history (unemployed, professionals)
- Date of offence (historical, recent)
- Degree of Violence (touching, torture)
What are the types of sex offenders?
- Sexual offenders against adults (rapists)
- Extrafamilial sex offenders against children: unrelated children
- Intrafamilial sex offenders against children : related children (Incest offenders)
- Online sexual offenders (e.g., child pornography)
- Offline non-contact sex offenders: exhibitionists, voyeurs
What is different about intrafamilial offenders?
- Fewer criminogenic needs than sex offenders against unrelated children
- lower on measures of antisocial tendencies
- less sexual arousal to children and less sexual self-regulation problems
- Given they are typically lower risk, most incest offender require minimal intervention
What are the challenges in this field?
- A number of studies examining risk factors for the onset of violence
- Much less on the onset sexual offending
- Studies suggest possible testable risk factors, but their research design precludes conclusions about causality
- Convenience samples, pre-selected, small, self-report or interview
- A lot more is known on factors that predict reoffending (Maintenance, next section)
What are the risk factors for onset?
-Socioecological model: individual, relationships (peers, siblings, parents), community, social
-Individual level: Sexual criminality (Atypical sexual interest
Pedophilia: exclusive vs. nonexclusive). Sexual preoccupation (Antisocial tendencies. Psychopathy, attitude tolerant of crime, norm violations, etc.)
What is sexual criminality?
-Sexual preoccupation
-Any atypical sexual interest: Sexual interest in children,
Sexualized violence, Having multiple paraphilias
Does paraphilia equal behaviour?
- About half are pedophilic (Seto, 2008)
- Not all pedophiles commit a sexual offence
- Hard to estimate (1-5% of the population, Dunkelfeld: 52% of those seeking anonymous help for pedophilia committed a sexual offence) Likely overestimate
if not pedophilia then why?
-Most child victims are 13-15 year (Has secondary sex characteristics)
-Sexual preoccupation
Emotional congruence with children (for sex offenders against children)
- general criminality
What asepcts of general criminality increase the likelihood of sexual offending?
- these factors apply within general criminality but are applicable to sexual risk as well
Offence-supportive attitudes
Lifestyle impulsivity (poor self-regulation, impulsive/reckless, unstable work history)
Poor cognitive problem-solving
Grievance/hostility
Negative social influences
Resistance to rules/supervision (childhood behaviour problems, non-compliance with supervision, violation of conditional release)
Attitudes tolerant of sexual offences
Lack of emotionally intimate relationships with adults (e.g., never married, conflict with intimate relationships- child offender)
Hostility towards women (rapists)
What kind of relationship increases likelihood to commit a sex offence?
Having a family member who is convicted of a sex offence increases your risk of committing a sex offence
Is sex offending genetic or environmental?
- there is an important genetic predisposition (moreso in sex offending against children [46%] than sex offending against adults [19%])
- however the majority of it is due to nonshared environment and error
What are the parental and perinatal risk factors for sexual offending?
- Young parents (< 25)
- Older parents (>40-45)
- Parents with lower education, violent criminal convictions, psychiatric diagnoses, and suicide attempts
- Indicator of in utero experiences (small birth weight, small head circumference, being small for gestational age)
What are the recidivism rates for sex offenders?
- From 27 to 84 studies with mean follow-up of 5 to 6 years (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2004)
- Sexual = 13.7%
- Non-sexual violent = 14%
- Any violent (including sexual) = 25%
- Any = 36.9%
- extrafamilial offenders who assault stranger male victims have the highest likelihood to reoffend in the next 5 years
What are the two strongest predictors of sexual recidivism?
Atypical sexual interest
Antisocial tendencies
What factors are not criminogenic needs?
- Denial
- Poor victim empathy
- Low self-esteem
- Poor social skills
- Lack of motivation for treatment, low motivation at intake
- Major mental illness and symptoms of major mental illness (with the Exception of Antisocial personality disorder, Atypical sexual interests [pedophilia, hebephilia], psychosis and mania (hostile thoughts and command hallucinations associated with violence may be risk-relevant.)
What types of risk assessments are used for sexual offenders?
- We can predict with good accuracy an offender’s probability of committing a new offence
- Many instruments, e.g.: Static-99/Static-99R, Static-2002/Static-2002R, Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offender Recidivism (RRASOR), Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG), Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP), Violence Risk Scale: Sex Offender version (VRS:SO), Stable-2007/Acute-2007
- All very similar in terms of accuracy
- STATIC scales most often use across the world
What is the Static-99?
it is the most commonly used static scale for offenders in north america (risk levels: low risk, below average, average, above average, well above average. Each of hich predict likelihood of reoffending in the next 5 years)
-you cant get a lower score over time on the static 99 because its static, there needs to be a way that it can account for time crime free. Time offence free matters.
Does offender type matter for risk assessment?
-Yes and no
-Tools validated on individuals with contact sexual offence
Intrafamilial/extrafamilial, adult/child victim
-What about CSEM (CP) offenders?
-If there is a contact sexual offence (i.e., mixed), can use regular tool
-If not: CPORT or STABLE-2007
What is the field moving towards?
Success in the community as a way to improve/change your risk profile
What is the CPORT?
- it is a scale that is used for child porn offenders (Age range is quite a bit broader, Looking at age and gender of victims)
- predict fairly well for exclusively child porn offenders but not as well for those who were CP offenders and committed an offence
- 3/7 items address CP content and 3/7 require a prior criminal involvement
What are the 3 different treatment approaches?
-Pharmacological
Behavioural
-Cognitive- behavioural
What is the pharmacological approach?
- Reduce sex drive
- E.g., antiandrogens that reduce or block testosterone, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) (a.k.a. depo-Provera)
- Antidepressants (reduces compulsivity)
What is the behavioural treatment approach?
- Attempt to reduce deviant sexual interest and/or increase non-deviant sexual interest
- E.g., Aversion, masturbatory satiation, directed masturbation
What is the cognitive behavioural treatment approach?
- it is most common and is almost always supplemented with behavioural or pharmacological
- Attempt to change cognitions that mediate behaviour
- Cognitive restructuring
- Relapse prevention
- Focus primarily on avoiding sex offending
- Not so useful for offenders who do not want to stop
- Self-regulation model (offence pathways; Ward & Hudson, 1998). Focus more on approaching alternatives to sex offending
Is there a way to adapt treatment interventions for CP offenders?
-Expect about half to be low-risk = few to no treatment sessions
-Can adapt contact sex offender programs, but: Intensity
& Treatment targets
-Separate track for CPOs
What are the challenges with treatment?
- low recidivism rates
- small sample size
- lack of suitable comparison group
- dropouts
- not all treatment is created equal
What did Hanson et al. find about the effectiveness of treatment programs?
127 studies identified and rated according to Collaborative Outcome Data Committee (2007) study quality guidelines
-104 rejected
-18 weak
-5 good
-None rated as strong
However treatment does work, they found a 10.9 reicidvism rate in those who were treated and a 19.2% recidivism rate in untreated
Is treatment necessary for change?
-No, some offenders desist (i.e., cease)
Why do some individuals desist?
Effective psychological interventions: - Regulating risk relevant propensities Aging: -Physical decline -Increased psychological maturity Increasing rewards from prosocial life: -Success in work -Rewarding leisure activities -Decent friends -Caring intimate partner -Increased dependence
Myth or Fact: the majority will continue to engage in sexually abusive behaviour
MYTH: most do not reoffend. the rate of reoffending is about 5-10%. Reoffending rates are extremely low for youth.
Myth or Fact: strangers are more likely to commit sexual offences
sex crimes are overwhelmingly perpetrated by someone known to the victim (85-97%)
Myth or Fact: everyone who commits a sexual offence against children is a pedophile and every pedophile will reoffend
Pedophilia is not a necessary or sufficient condition for sexual offence against children. ONly about half of men who commit sexual offences against children are pedophiles. Not all pedophiles offend against children.
Myth or fact: treatment does not work on them
treatment, done right, can reduce reoffending rates
Myth or Fact: they are all the same and pose the same risk upon release
individuals who commit sexual offences are diverse and like other offender types, vary in their needs and reoffending risk
