Caregivers’ Considerations of Remorse and Responsibility Among Youth Who Sexually Offend

Abstract

When a youth sexually offends, most of the reactions and repercussions that follow are understandably negative. However, there is limited research about mixed reactions involving remorse and responsibility on the part of the adolescent who offended and their relatives. Based on qualitative interviews with 16 caregivers among 10 families in Canada, this article presents the parents’ perspectives on the various processes, benefits, challenges, and outcomes related to expressions of remorse and experiences of responsibility among youth who sexually offended, their victims, and their parents. This study sheds particular light on how adolescent perpetrators of sexual harm and especially their caregivers do feel deeply remorseful and responsible for the impacts of sexual offending behavior, which is contrary to public scrutiny that negatively projects responsibility onto youth offenders and their parents. Thus, our findings emphasize the constructive and considerate ways in which remorse is felt and responsibility is assumed; and by extension, they point to the importance of restorative practices in efforts toward reconciliation and accountability.

Parental Perspectives on Upholding Children’s Rights in the Context of Aggression toward Family/Caregivers in Childhood & Adolescence (AFCCA) in Canada

“…With regard to supports, caregivers shared that they faced considerable barriers in accessing help for their families and that the available interventions were unhelpful and unnecessary as they often involved the use of child welfare and/or youth justice systems. The Consortium's findings are consistent with other studies based on caregivers' concerns regarding AFCCA (Clarke et al, 2017;Condry et al, 2020;Holt et al, 2011;Selwyn and Meakings, 2016;Selwyn et al, 2014), as well as other research on parental perspectives on other harm-generating behaviours exhibited by children and youth (Gervais and Johnston, 2022;Gervais and Romano, 2019;Gervais and Romano, 2018;Hackett et al, 2014). Yet, despite the growing literature on AFCCA that examines relatives' views, as well as the complex set of factors that place young people at risk for this behaviour, most of this research has been conducted outside of Canada, and the literature does not appear to have approached the issue of AFCCA specifically from a child rights' perspective.…”

Reconsidering Reconciliation Within Families of Youth Who Sexually Offend

“…12. All parents reported that their offending son faced cognitive and/or mental health challenges; however, we did not thoroughly examine their implications in this article; we do so elsewhere (Gervais & Johnston, 2021). …”