Sexual Offenders Flashcards
Suspects of sexual crime and the consequences of suspicion
Being suspected with a sexual crime is enough to be treated with long lasting suspicion.
Even being associated with an implicated group can lead to suspicion:
Catholic priests
Male radio and tv personalities of a certain age
Conversely high-profile acquittals may give rise to a false belief that false accusations are common.
How does the Sexual Offences Act 2003 define rape and consent?
Rape is penetration of the vagina/mouth/anus by the penis.
Consent is when a person agrees by choice to the sexual activity and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice.
What are the additional offences in the Sexual Offences Act 2003?
Assault by penetration - penetration to the vagina/mouth/anus by anything other than a penis.
Sexual Assault
What are the ages of consent and offences against children?
Age of consent is 16.
Penetration, sexual contact and inciting children to engage in sexual activity is illegal when victim is under 13.
Penetration, sexual contact and inciting children to engage in sexual activity is illegal when victim is under 16 and perpetrator is 18 or older
What are the additional offences against children?
Sexual contact with someone 16/17 maybe illegal where there is an abuse of trust.
Familial child sexual offences
Grooming
Offences against persons with a mental disorder impeding choice
What are the sexual offences in other jurisdictions?
Europe, US, Implications for research
Europe
- Laws vary across countries
- In the EU age of consent varies between 13 (Spain) and 18 (Malta, Turkey, Vatican City)
US
- Age of consent varies between 16 and 18 depending on the state
Implications for research
- Studies may treat as criminal individuals who would be acting lawfully in other jurisdictions
The prevalence of rape and child molestation
1 in five women may experience rape or attempted rape during their life time (MacDonald, 2000)
For women 15-44, rape and domestic violence are higher risk factors for death and disability than cancer, war and motor vehicle accidents.
However there are also “junk statistics from advocacy groups” (Pinker, 2011) such as that 1 in 4 university students have been raped.
In the US, annual rates of rape have reduced by 80% since 1973, compared with a 57% reduction for murder (Pinker, 2011).
Despite this, latest UK estimates annually: 430,000 - 517,000 sexual offences; 60,000 - 95,000 are rape.
Meta-analysis puts global rates of child sexual abuse (victims under 18) at 4 - 19% for boys and 11 - 12% for girls (Stolenborgh, 2011)
What did Smallbone and Wortley (2000, 2004, 2009) find when examining common misconceptions about child sexual abuse?
“Stranger Danger”
- 5% of child sexual abuse perpetrators lived with the victim
- 9% knew child
- 5% were strangers
69% of offences in the home
“Paedophile rings”
Prior to arrest
8% talked to other offenders
4% were members of a paedophile group
"Most child sexual offenders are gay" Stated orientation 76% female only 8% male only 13% both
Victims
72% female
28% male
However, gay offenders have more victims on average
Are all child molesters paedophiles?
No. People tend to use the terms interchangeably but child molester does not equal paedophile
What is paedophilia and other philias?
Paedophilia: “a sexual preference for children, boys or girls or both, usually of prepubertal or early pubertal age” (WHO, 1997)
Hebophelia - around puberty
Ephebophilia - adolescent
Teleiophilia - adult
What are Virtuous Pedophiles and the Dunkelfeld Project, Germany?
These are groups to help people suffering with pedophilia. It helps them others alike and helps to find them ways of coping with it and how to get help for it.
What percentage of contact offenders are paedophilic?
40-50% (Seto, 2008)
How do you measure deviant sexual interest?
Traditionally measured by measuring arousal.
Less direct methods are now being developed
- looking at reaction times to stimuli
- in other words do people get distracted by stimuli they sexually appealing (O Ciardha and Gormley, 2012)
What is child molestation?
Is anyone who commits a contact sexual offence against a child, whether they have paedophilic interest or not.
Often divided into: Incest/Intrafamilial - less evidence of paedophilia - lower re-offence rates Unrelated/Extra-familial - Greater sexual interest in male children - Greater risk
What about people who look at child pornography?
The internet has made it easier to find child pornography.
Child pornography offenders show greater paedophilic arousal than contact offenders (Seto et al, 2006)
1 in 8 will have an officially recorded contact (Seto et al, 2011)
50% self report a contact offence.
However, re-offending with a contact offence is less likely than for contact offenders.
What about female perpetrators?
Believed to be responsible for 4-5% of all sexual offences (but only 1% of prison population)
Many co-offend with a male.
This may be an underestimation:
Social and cultural construction of women may see female abuse as less harmful
- female abuse less likely to be reported
- victims less likely to report
What type of people rape?
We tend to think of the stereotype of a predatory stranger-rapist.
However, rape tends to happen more in:
- Marital rape
- Acquaintance rape
- Date rape
- Multiple perpetrator rape e.g. fraternities, gangs, rape in war
- Prison rape: US Justice Department estimated that annually there are 216,000 victims of sexual assault in US prisons.
Who created the Integrated Theory of Sexual Offending?
Ward and Beech (2006)
In An Integrated Theory of Sexual Assault, what does the biology section show?
Latest research shows that there could be pre-natal influences on sexual offending, especially paedophilia. But this is not a smoking gun in terms of the causes of sexual offending more broadly.
In An Integrated Theory of Sexual Assault, what does the Ecological Niche section show?
Refers to the social context of the offender.
Own history of abuse ( Glasser et al., 2001)
- 35% of male abusers had been victims
- 11% of male non-abusers had been victims
Cultural norms facilitating sexual violence
- rape myth acceptance
Group processes
- multiple perpetrator rape
- rape in war
In An Integrated Theory of Sexual Assault, what does the Neuropsychological Functioning section show?
This is a little vague in the theory and requires further research.
However, can be thought of as trait factors tht predispose a person to sexually offend:
Personality
Emotional disposition
Perception
Memory
Regulation
In An Integrated Theory of Sexual Assault, what does the Clinical Symptoms section show?
These are state factors. The “symptoms” that you might observe in someone at risk of offending.
Emotional problems - regulating behaviour
Social difficulties - need for intimacy/control
Offence-supportive cognitions
Deviant arousal
What are offence-supportive cognitions?
The literature is problematically vague (O Ciardha and Ward, 2013)
Basically beliefs that effect how offenders see the world
- beliefs about themselves/their victims/the world.
But are these beliefs or excuses? (Maruna and Mann, 2006; O Ciardha and Gannon, 2011)
Do we throw away the keys? Recidivism
This is re-offending, what we do not what to see.
Looking at 31,216 offenders after an average of 5-6 years, Hanson and Morton Bourgon found:
sexual recidivism - 13.7%
Violent nonsexual recidivism - 14%
Any Recidivism - 36.9%
Reoffending is low and re-offenders are more likely to be convicted for a non-sexual crime.
Do we throw away the keys? Desistence
opposite to recidivism - a slowing down or a complete cessation of offending behaviour.
Theories of desistance:
Natural desistance - crime is a young man’s game
Cognitive transformation - recreating their identities through gradual or sudden change
Informal social control - stability,marriage, employment.
What works in sex offender treatment?
Risk-Needs-Responsivity - Andrews and Bonta
Good Lives - Ward and colleagues
- Group treatment
- Broadly cognitive behavioural
- Focuses on the treatment needs of the group
- Positive psychology Ethos
Separate Treatment for Rapists and Child Molesters? - Eccleston and Owen 2007
Does treatment work?
Several studies have shows that treatment reduces sexual reoffending by about 27%-43% (Marshall et al, 2013)
Especially when:
- Target criminogenic needs
- Responsive
- Use procedures shows to be effective with particular targets
- Strengths-based
What is operation Yewtree?
Operation Yewtree began in 2012 after the Jimmy Savile scandal. It is a police investigation into sexual abuse, primarily against children.
