A British sample of sexually abusive adolescents: abuser and abuse characteristics

Abstract

This paper describes some of the background characteristics and sexu, aUy abusive behaviour of 100 British sexuaUy abusive male adolescents aged between 11 and 18 years. A retrospective file review and clinical assessment provided rele, vant information on aU subjects who had a documented history of sexual assault or abuse against others. Subjects came from a variety of sources including residential child care centres, secure facilities and an adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic. Demographic characteristics and abuser characteristics are described, including the family environment, history of involvement with health and social services, school adjustment and performance, history of non,sexual antisocial behaviour, and also the adolescents' own prior experiences of physical and sexual abuse. Abuse and vic, tim characteristics are also described, including duration of abusive behaviour, types of sexually abusive behaviour exhibited, sex offence convictions, method of over, coming victim resistance, location where abuse took place, sex and age of victims, and abuser-victim relationship. These abuser and abuse characteristics were found to be consistent with those described in the North American literature. The implica, tions of these findings are discussed in relation to the aetiology, management and treatment of sexuaUy abusive behaviour in British adolescents.

Sexual offence recidivism: prediction versus understanding

“…For instance, Richardson, Graham, Bhate and Kelly (1995) found that most adolescent sex offenders displayed difficulty in containing their behaviours across several aspects of their lives, demonstrated for example by truancy or aggression, and it is this, rather than an individual's age per se, that needs to be addressed. In order to predict future sexual dangerousness, it clearly will be necessary first to disentangle sexual psychopathology from other antisocial behaviours, and then to gain a better understanding of the natural history of each.…”

Links Between Juvenile Sexually Abusive Behaviour and Emerging Severe Personality Disorder Traits in Childhood

“…A feature of the family backgrounds of many JSAs is exposure to inappropriate or deviant sexuality (Richardson, Graham and Bhate, 1995). This can take the form of childhood sexual abuse within the family, inadequate family boundaries about viewing sexually explicit material (for example, through television or print media), and exposure to other adult family members engaging in consenting and/or non-consenting sexual activity.…”

“…For example, between a third and a half of the samples in six UK studies (Dolan, Holloway, Bailey and Kroll, 1996;James and Neil, 1996;Manocha and Mezey, 1998;O'Halloran et al, 2002;Richardson et al, 1995;Taylor, 2003) were subject to the provisions of a Statement of Educational Need (SEN).…”

“…For example, those who victimise peers/adults have a somewhat higher rate of using verbal or physical coercion (Becker, Cunningham-Rathner and Kaplan, 1986). They are also more likely to exclusively abuse female victims, and are more likely to abuse strangers, than those who abuse younger children (Boyd et al, 2000;Richardson et al, 1995).…”

“…This is not necessarily the case for the Late Onset trajectory, where explanations for SAB are more difficult to extrapolate from Moffitt's theory of anti-social behaviour. However, the previously published characteristics of the abuse perpetrated by adolescents (Boyd et al, 2000;Richardson et al, 1995) suggest that their SAB may be motivated by difficulty initiating intimate peer relationships, or by difficulty in expressing anger or power conflicts, leading to a tendency to dominate and exert control over others.…”