The Sexual Histories and Fantasies of Youthful Males: A Comparison of Sexual Offending, Nonsexual Offending, and Nonoffending Groups

Abstract

The present clinical and theoretical literature suggests that adolescents' sexual histories and fantasies are factors contributing to the onset and perpetuation of criminal sexual behaviors. However, few data exist either to support or to refute such assertions. The purpose of the present study was to describe the self-reported sexual histories and fantasies of four groups: 104 incarcerated adolescent sexual offenders between 10 and 15 years of age, 198 16- to 20-year-old incarcerated sexual offenders, 124 incarcerated youth without a history of sexual offending, and 135 male nonoffending undergraduates. Youthful sexual offenders reported fewer consenting sexual experiences and more involvement in nonconsenting and paraphilic behaviors than both incarcerated nonsexual offenders and college males. Moreover, both sexual offenders and incarcerated nonsexual offenders reported more atypical and voyeuristic experiences, and fewer nondeviant sexual fantasies than college males. These results are discussed in terms of both social deficit and deviant conditioning models of sexual offending, leading to speculation that, contrary to clinical lore, criminal activity may be associated with suppressed levels of nondeviant fantasy rather than elevated levels of deviant fantasy.

Men Presenting with Sexual Thoughts of Children or Coercion: Flights of Fancy or Plans for Crime?

“…Prior research, however, is problematic; inferential statistics are sometimes missing, fantasies of male children and adults are combined, fantasies of rape are combined with fantasies of pain or subsumed within broader 'deviant' categories, and comparison groups sometimes have a sexual offending history [9,20]. Other studies include only one comparison [10,13,14,21] or no comparison [e.g.…”

“…Typically, prior research has used long fantasy checklists [e.g. 9,10,17,20], providing insights into the prevalence of fantasies but nothing about their nature. Each checklist item is presented as a separate, discrete fantasy (e.g.…”

“…Sexual fantasy is rarely defined [e.g. [9][10][11][12], and while there is often an implicit assumption that fantasies are pleasant and wanted, they are usually operationalized as nearly any sexual thought [e.g. [13][14][15][16]; also see 2].…”

“…11, 15,17], and sexual fantasies of coercing others might be operationalized with items on 'rape' (without a definition), non-consensual sex, or ambiguous references to 'threats' and 'force' [e.g. 9,15,18,19].…”

Sexual Fantasies of Adolescent Male Sex Offenders in Residential Treatment: A Descriptive Study

“…In terms of deviant behavior, Daleiden, Kaufman, Hilliker, and O'Neil (1998) suggested that fantasy content may be less relevant for supporting deviant acts than other factors, such as the intrusive and automatic nature of deviant sexual thoughts. Recently, Cortoni and Marshall (2001) provided some support for this position.…”