Research Paper DRAFT for Criminal Psych: Part II (History)

Historical Perspective: (8 of 15 Pages Complete)

The study of juvenile sexual offenses has not been widely pursued as a subject of interest in the field of criminal psychology in a historical perspective. Per Jones, (2007) one of the most documented studies of adolescent sexual offenses occurred in the early 1980s, when a therapist named Robert Longo began treating adolescent boys who had committed sexual offenses. Offenses of the boys ranged from fondling peers a few years younger than they were to the outright raping of young children. Treatment included in Longo’s research included the boys keeping journals with details of sexual fantasies, as well as documentation of logs that tracked the frequency of these fantasies and their extent of severity, such as whether the fantasy was “a passing thought,” or severe enough that the individual had to “act” on the thoughts to which self-gratification was deemed necessary. Longo based treatment on the idea that sex offending is an addiction and that teenagers should be monitored for any triggers that may initiate a “cycle” of re-offending. With this approach in mind, Longo developed treatment in the form of “relapse-prevention plans,” which would track probable stimuli in risk of re-offending as well as an “action plan” should targeted stimuli come in contact with the individual. (Jones, 2007).
Historically, the perspective of juvenile sexual offenders was considered “new” in the 1980s. Much of the treatment, including that of Longo, was based on the same techniques used in the treatment model of adult sexual offenders. Adult offenders, however, do not account for development within an adolescent as well as the impact of family and environment affect the behavior of the adolescent. It appears that juveniles who commit offenses of a sexual nature tend to differ from adult sexual offenders. (Aggrawal, 2009) It is estimated that juveniles account for almost 25% of documented sexual offenses in the United States. Statistics show that rape, which can be construed as the most serious of sexual offenses in juveniles has declined in the last decade, court cases involving other sexual offenses in adolescents have risen. (Children’s Service, 2002) During the period of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, following Longo’s experimental research, it appeared that sex offenses in general weren’t taken seriously by the justice system, and cases involving juvenile offenders were especially noted as not being thoroughly addressed. At the same time, however, it appears the public was taking an active interest and the victims’ rights movement in society began. (Jones, 2007) Attention to sexual abuse was being demanded and at this time the development of centers and hot-lines for rape crisis were being developed and the government began allotting states money within the budget for victim services.
In the early 1990’s the topic of crimes committed of a sexual nature became one of the leading sensations of the media. News stories began targeting the stories of young girls who were raped and sometimes murdered, even though the majority of offenses against juveniles (80%-90%) are committed by someone the victim knows. (Ryan, Lane, Davis, Isaac, 2010) Author, Philip Jenkins (1998), states that with the increased awareness of sexual crimes, society’s next step was to focus on the offenders, including adolescent offenders, which was one of the biggest fears in society due to the media implementing a state of constant paranoia. Per Jenkins, “first it’s adult predators, and then it’s ‘what about children?’ To draw attention, you have to up the ante. The issue moves up a notch and you can’t move it back so easily.”
With the increased awareness that resulted from the media’s huge grasp on sexually related crimes as well as the government’s interest sparking in the field, the recognition and regulation of sexual crimes and offenders appeared to flourish in the early 1990’s. One of the best known examples is Megan’s Law, which was implemented in 1996. (Rathus, Nevid, Fichner-Rathus, 2011) Since 1994 federal law has required many offenders of sexual crimes to register with the police in order to provide possible aid in investigations regarding sex-crimes. Megan’s Law, taking this a step further, mandates that local law enforcement agencies provide public notification to the community about convicted offenders within the community. In the current times of increased technological awareness; this law, which also goes by Community-Notification Law, often uses websites to provide access to this information. There is no distinction between juvenile and adult offenders on these websites, however, meaning on many state websites for sexual offenders, one can find the names, addresses, date of birth, as well as oftentimes photographs of juveniles who have committed any sexual offense. (Jones, 2007) According to Jones (2007), the increase in federal awareness has heightened the targeting of juvenile sexual offenders through the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This act authorized the creation of a federal internet based registry that allows law enforcement officials to tract sex offenders, ages 14 and older, who have engaged in genital, anal or oral-genital contact with children younger than 12.
Throughout the past three decades, awareness of sexual crimes, including those committed by adolescents, has drastically risen. With the implementation of Megan’s Law and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act the community is eased from some of their paranoia through the access of knowledge via notification by law enforcement. It appears, however, that the classification of adolescent has been somewhat contradicted when sexual crimes are the focus of study. For the most part, the records of youths’ are protected from being publicly discussed and remain confidential. This appears to be contributed to a theory that children are less responsible for their actions in part to cognitive development, meaning that they are less worthy of blame and possibly more amenable to rehabilitation. With the two aforementioned acts, however, this issue of confidentiality is ignored since the photographs, addresses and ages of sexual offenders are published for anyone to view, alongside those of adult offenders. Based on the limited information found regarding research and studies of juvenile sexual offenders that has occurred, as well as the broad federal laws affecting sexual offenders as a group, versus distinguished into age categories, it appears that juvenile sexual offenders are not classified the same as adolescents within the juvenile justice system who commit other, non-sexual, acts. It appears the justice system considers adolescent sexual offenders to be more fixed in traits, incurable and more dangerous. One could construe from this that the justice system classifies juveniles who have committed sex crimes to be more similar to adults that have committed sexual crimes than they are to juveniles who have committed other, non-sexual crimes.

Research Paper DRAFT for Criminal Psych: Part I (Intro)

Part I: Introduction (4 of 15 Pages)

The problem that will be discussed is the issue of juvenile/adolescent sexual offenders in present day society. This topic was selected as the problem of research due to the increased number of juvenile sexual offenders appearing in the media, including the circumstances and variables of causes for occurrences, such as decreased parental supervision, medical and/or mental disorders, societal influences on adolescents regarding nature and norms of sexual behavior, and other possible factors that contribute to increased sexual behaviors in individuals that could cause or result in these individuals displaying a maladaptive sexual behavior while classified as a juvenile. For reference purposes, the term “Juvenile and/or Adolescent (Sexual) Offender” within this project will be defined as “a youth, from puberty to the legal age of majority, who commits any sexual act with a person of any age, against the victims will, without consent, or in an aggressive, exploitative or threatening manner.” (Ryan, Lane, Davis, & Isaac, 2010)
Current policies and laws implemented within the legal system regarding treatment, consequences, risks of re-offending, methods of prevention and other practices will be addressed in order to critique effectiveness and depth of developmental factors addressed in the legal system which target the prevention and management of inappropriate sexual behaviors within the adolescent population in order to lower the future instances and occurrences of these behaviors and effectively treat individuals who have committed these offenses with the goal of reducing the current statistics in the future. Variable factors will be considered, including the percentages of sexual offenders who are male versus those who are female, as well as ratio of male to females as victims in sexual crimes involving adolescents. Another factor of consideration includes cases of offenders who are classified as incapacitated within the court system, such as juveniles being dually diagnosed with both mental illness and mental retardation. Statistics of individuals committing sexual offenses from various ranges of age within the classification of juvenile and adolescent will be considered, as well as recidivism statistics within various age ranges and other factors deemed relevant which could support research and conclusions determined in regards to specific causes and diagnoses influencing adolescent sexual offenders within various age, developmental, gender-based, ethnic and cultural groups in which these crimes occur.
Research in this area is significant due to the increased number of sexual crimes committed by adolescent individuals in the present time versus statistics reported in decades past. Increased sexual crimes committed by juveniles today is significant due to the impact these crimes have on the future of society, since the juveniles of today are the adults of the future, which include the future workforce, political influences, developers of policies or laws, media reporters, and even celebrities who’s sexual values and practices will have influence on the youth of the following generation. The impact of increased sexual offenders classified as juvenile is also deemed relevant and in need of addressing due to the fact that those who are victims of sexual crimes impact the future of society as well, and as research shows, victims of sexual offenses often are affected mentally to the point of developing mental or emotional disorders and even, in some cases, developing inappropriate sexual behaviors themselves, which may result in a victim of a sexual abuse crime victimizing someone else in a sexual nature, which results in the chain of sexual offenses growing to include even more offenders.
Addressing the problem of sexual offenses committed and the resulting treatment, care and methods of prevention of further damage or offenses is also greatly relevant due to the fact that discussion of experiences, results, and findings already completed can provide insight to efficiently diagnose and treat both offenders and victims in a faster or more productive way due to past data of similar occurrences being used to determine methods which may or may not have been affective in past instances, which results in researchers saving time, money and resources by referencing these instances, as well as possible effectiveness in treatment and care of offenders and victims by comparing signs, symptoms and crimes to past examples of a similar nature which may have resulted in either positive and successful results in managing issues or poor and devastating results, which increase likelihood of similar results, which addresses issues regarding humane and ethical treatment, as obviously, a method of which the end results were found to be negative or devastating would not want to be tried numerous times, while instances which resulted in positive or successful rates of treatment and management would likely want to be repeated in similar cases, which would hopefully result in findings that resemble the original results, allowing time, money and resources be spent on the discovery of successful treatment for cases of behaviors or acts which may not have as much documented research or findings within that specified field or area, allowing improvement and increased data collection within the field of juvenile sexual crimes. This, in turn, would provide improvement, as a whole, which would assist in development of future research and positive treatment or care to those who become involved with the system as offenders or victims in future generations.
Goals of compilation and publishing of research, findings and recommendations regarding juvenile and adolescent sexual offenders in society involve many objectives. These include increasing awareness of the problem to general society, relaying results of findings of research to a broad audience in hopes of sharing instances and results to those involved with increasing efficiency and productive results within the field and providing a compilation of methods, examples and instances for reference in the future to provide assistance and relevant input within the chosen career field of Psychological Human Services, specifically the field of juveniles with mental or developmental disabilities and/or disorders of a forensic nature and involvement within the court system, in order to actively contribute and provide successful methods of treatment, training and prevention in the field and specific area involving employment. Further goals include the compilation of information to be presented and referenced should the career opportunity of teaching Psychology within an institution of higher education become available and accessed, in order to have organized referenced documentation involving the subject of sexual offenders of a juvenile classification be accessible for sharing and distribution, which will assist in efficiently sharing results of researched information and procedures of treatment and care which can be evaluated and studied for means of improvement of the said procedures or suggest areas in which further research and/or improvement is needed, which will positively effect the field, as a whole by sharing this information with students who may go to work within the field of criminal psychology involving juvenile criminal sexual behaviors in various areas, which will further distribute the information with the hope of gaining consistency and targeting areas of need, which will also improve study of the field as a whole.