Does Victim Age Differentiate Between Perpetrators of Sexual Child Abuse? A Study of Mental Health, Psychosocial Circumstances, and Crimes

Abstract

To test the theory that sexual offenders who abuse very young children (0-5 years) have more severe mental health and psychosocial problems than those who victimize older children, authors compared psychiatric diagnoses, social circumstances, and crime-related data in all sexual offenders against minors referred to forensic psychiatric investigation in Sweden during a 5-year period. Thirty-one men had committed index crimes involving victims between the ages of 0 and 5 years (Group 1), 90 had 6-to 11-year-old victims (Group 2), and 41 had 12- to 15-year-old victims (Group 3). All three offender groups were characterized by severe mental health problems, in many cases fulfilling American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for both Axis I and Axis II diagnoses, but these problems did not differ between groups. Neither did social situation or sexual orientation. Offenders with 0- to 5-year-old victims significantly more often abused both boys and girls. Frequencies of retrospectively diagnosed childhood-onset behavior disorders were high in all three offender groups. The authors' data did not support previous findings of increasingly severe mental health problems with decreasing victim age.

Social Anxiety and Loneliness in Adults Who Solicit Minors Online

“…We explored this question without stating directional hypotheses, as prior findings based on offline offenders have been inconsistent regarding the increase of psychosocial impairments with decreasing victim age (Carlstedt et al, 2009;Firestone, Dixon, Nunes, & Bradford, 2005;Kalichman, 1991).…”

Same-sex child molestation within the Boy Scouts of America initiation and termination in victim narratives.

“…As for victim gender, Leclerc et al (2009) argued that if an offender targeted a male child as victim, it was less likely that the offender's ultimate goal was genital penetration, while adult male victims were more likely to sustain physical injuries, such as rectal trauma (Erickson et al, 1988). However, the prevalence of penetration was found to be common in both children aged between 0-5 years old (both boys and girls) and the older victims (higher proportion of boys than the other groups; Carlstedt et al, 2009), which indicated the indiscriminating characteristic of small children with regard to their gender.…”

“…In other words, victims' gender has been neglected in comparison to age in the study of child molestation. Among pre-school age victims (i.e., children age of seven and less), the reason for younger children being targets of sexual abuse was not because of their gender, but because of their small physical stature (Carlstedt et al, 2009;Erickson et al,1988;Finkelhor & Williams, 1988). It may be necessary to take a different approach to sexual offences involving older victims, when examining offending patterns and offender behaviors at the physical contact stage.…”

“…Thus, the gender of victim was found to be less important for child molesters until the child victims became old enough to develop distinctive gender-based characteristics (Carlstedt et al, 2009). In most cases, older victims were more often subjected to offenders' actual orgasmic sexual acts (Lang et al, 1988).…”

“…Penetration is regarded as the most severe outcome of sexual offence (Carlstedt et al, 2009). As for victim gender, Leclerc et al (2009) argued that if an offender targeted a male child as victim, it was less likely that the offender's ultimate goal was genital penetration, while adult male victims were more likely to sustain physical injuries, such as rectal trauma (Erickson et al, 1988).…”