The Adult Offending Outcomes of Adolescents Who Have Perpetrated a Sex Offense: Is Sexual Offending in Adolescence Indicative of Things to Come?

Abstract

Being adjudicated for a sex offense carries significant social, legal, and penal implications that are almost unparalleled and adolescents are no exception to this differential treatment by the justice system. This highlights the relevance of providing criminal career information concerning future offending among adolescents who have a record for a sex offense as they age and become adults. Based on prospective longitudinal data collected from a sample of male adolescents enrolled in the Pathways to Desistance study ( n = 1170), negative binomial regression models are conducted to investigate the relationship between having a juvenile record for a sex offense and the frequency of general offending in early adulthood (i.e., 18 years old and over). Results show that adolescents who have perpetrated a sex offense have significantly lower levels of involvement in offending during early adulthood, whether based on official or self-reported data. Findings are discussed in terms of policy and theoretical implications.

A Classification System to Guide Treatment Needs for Juveniles Who Have Engaged in Abusive Sexual Behavior

“…Assessing youth in this sample over time highlighted that the overlap among classes in our study appeared to be between the HTTN and AR classes. The non-ignorable overlap of problematic general behavior problems is consistent with the extant empirical research, which suggests that the sexual recidivism rate for youth is low, but if youth with problematic sexual behavior reoffend, it is more likely to be a non-sexual offense (Chouinard-Thivierge et al, 2023; Lussier et al, 2012). Therefore, focusing exclusively on sexual recidivism in assessments with problematic sexual behavior is shortsighted and these findings underscore the importance of nonsexual recidivism as an assessment target.…”

A meta-analysis of trends in general, sexual, and violent recidivism among youth with histories of sex offending

“…Of concern is the fact that about 40 to 48% of YSOs return to the justice system when broadening the definition to general recidivism. In other words, YSOs do return to the justice system but for nonsexual criminal offenses (Chouinard-Thivierge et al, 2022). This finding highlights an important policy question that rarely has been raised: are the consequences of being adjudicated for a sexual offense in adolescence conducive to a revolving-door problem with possible long-term negative consequences?…”