Key Words:adolescence, juvenile sexual offending, developmental influences Abstract
Research of adolescent sexual offenders has identified significant differ-ences in recidivism rates, victim selection, and amenability to treatment between this population and their adult counterparts. These findings may be related to several developmental influences that are identified and dis-cussed. This article synthesizes the developmental variables underlying motivation and victim selection unique to these adolescents. Differences in motivational factors, impairment in decisional competencies, and mechanisms of cognitive-emotional deviance are considered. Relevant research on available empirically based assessment tools is described, and recommendations for forensic assessment are offered.
Sexual Offenders:
Developmental Considerations in the
Forensic Assessment of Adolescent
Victim Selection, Intervention, and Offender Recidivism Rates
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Developmental Differences Between Adolescents and Adults
Adolescents are different from adults in many significant and meaningful ways. Their experience of the world is much more limited, they are less socially mature, and their cognitive and emo-tional capacities are not fully devel-oped. Underdeveloped adolescents pose a greater risk in some respects, but are also more amendable to change than adults. These factors account for critical differences in available approaches to both evaluation procedures and inter-vention options with this population.
A critical developmental considera-tion involving all adolescents' cognitive capacities is that of decisional compe-tence.Findings on competence to stand trial for adolescent defendants demon-strate that juveniles show significant limitations in their abilities to consider broader long-term consequences of decision making and behavior (Grisso, 1997, 2000). Self-perceived invincibili-ty to consequences directly underlies their aberrant behavior. Although motivational factors related to sexual misconduct among adolescents remain ambiguous, such conduct is likely to be multi-determined and governed by contextual variables. Some motivation-al factors documented as evocative include naïve exploration; revenge; the exercise of power, control, and authori-ty; erotic arousal; and composition of absent family affection. In addition, deviant sexual arousal (sexual excitation in response to deviant stimuli such as prepubescent children, aggression, or violence), represents a central risk for recidivism among adult and adolescent sexual offenders, and available actuarial assessment procedures for adults, as well as clinical assessment tools for ado-lescents, include deviant sexual arousal as a risk factor (Epperson, Kaul, Huot, Hesselton, & Goldman, 2000; Hanson & Bussiere, 1996; Hanson & Harris, 1998; Worling & Curwen, 2000a).
Developmental origins of sexual
arousal typically involve elementary principles of respondent and operant conditioning. Fantasy images of graph-ic nudity, sexuality, and sadomasochis-tic erosadomasochis-tica, partly fed from teen maga-zines and television shows and partly from adult pornography, pair with mas-turbation. Repeated pairings of deviant imagery and fantasy with sexual excita-tion result in gratifying effects of think-ing about aberrant sexual acts. Other factors have also been shown to be associated with deviant sexual arousal in adolescents, including observing adult aggression in domestically violent homes, poor-quality childhood rela-tionships with parents, and lack of pos-itive emotional connections within the family (Caputo, Frick, & Brodsky, 1999; Johnson & Knight, 2000; Mar-shall & MarMar-shall, 2000; Murphy, DiLillo, Haynes, & Steere, 2001). Recidivism Among Adolescent Sexu-al Offenders
The literature on adult sexual offenders abounds, yet research on juvenile sexu-al offenders desperately warrants inves-tigation (Hanson & Bussiere, 1998; Righthand & Welch, 2001). Neverthe-less, there has been a notable recent increase in the study of both the assess-ment and treatassess-ment of juvenile sexual offenders.
It has been well established in the research literature that adolescent sexu-al offenders re-offend at significantly lower rates than their adult counter-parts (Medoff & Kinscherff, in press). A review of the literature indicates that numerous studies conducted by inde-pendent researchers with different sub-jects, states and countries, and research methods cite rates of recidivism gener-ally ranging from 3% to 14%, and that these recidivism rates are significantly lower than those found in the adult sex-ual offender research (Smith & Monastersky, 1986; Labs, Shields, & Schodel, 1993; Sipe, Jensen, & Everett, 1998; Rasmussen, 1999; Prentky,
Har-ris, Frizzell, & Righthand, 2000; Wor-ling, 2001). Perhaps because of this phenomenon, research in the area of adolescent sexual offenders has been infrequent, as low sexual-offense recidi-vism rates have obstructed some research investigations in the field. Given these rates of re-offense, the inverse of these numbers suggests that numerous studies have found rates on non-recidivism ranging from 86% to 93%. When compared with adult recidivism rates that are significantly higher, these low rates of re-offense in adolescents suggest that developmental factors may play a role in juvenile sexu-al offending. One potentisexu-al explanation might involve a maturational process in which fundamental changes occurring in development lead to lower rates of re-offense. It is important to note, how-ever, that research has found notably higher rates of sexual recidivism among more disturbed, violent, and chronic adolescent offenders (Rubinstein, Yea-ger, Goodstein, & Lewis, 1993). Victim Selection Among Adolescent Sexual Offenders
While causes for the differential rates in sexual re-offense between adolescents and adults have not been hypothesized, several developmental factors may play a role in this phenomenon. First are considerations of the victim class. Research has shown that the significant majority of adolescent sexual offenders victimize family members or acquain-tances rather than unknown individu-als. In a recent study of 485 juvenile sexual offenders, Zolondek, Abel, Northery, and Jordan (2001) found that 80.8% of the victims in their sam-ple were family members or acquain-tances, and only 8.2% were strangers. In developmental terms, this difference may reflect the increased exposure to family members and acquaintances-based activities that are inherent in ado-lescence. Victim selection may also reflect the inverse phenomenon of a
more limited degree of routine contact with non-family members or strangers that many adolescents experience. This would provide a decrease in potential opportunities to offend against unrelat-ed and unknown victims. Both of these potential factors generally represent the increased structure of the family or the systemic supervision of organized activ-ity, such as school or community involvement, that continues to exert an influence upon many adolescents at this stage of development.
Other factors, such as age, may also affect the victim selection. In general, a sexual assault between a perpetrator and victim of a similar age may be viewed as being less deviant than when the assault occurs between individuals with a wider age differential. In fact, several established risk-assessment tools contain perpetrator-victim age-related factors (Epperson et al., 2000; Worling & Curwen, 2001). A combination of age and opportunity for access to vic-tims may play a strong role in victim selection because, by virtue of their developmental status, adolescents are often exposed to individuals of a simi-lar age. As they are routinely sorted by age for school-based activities, commu-nity-based functions, and even less for-mal neighborhood-based interactions, it may be that a combination of age and opportunity for victim access plays a strong role in victim selection. That is, by virtue of their age, adolescents rou-tinely spend significant periods of time with similarly aged peers and are there-fore afforded more opportunity and access to other adolescents and children as potential victims.
Additional factors related to the vic-tim selection and recidivism rates of adolescent sexual offenders may include the process in which past and
potential future victims within a fami-ly or close pool of acquaintances are placed on notice regarding the risks of future sexual misconduct. Those involved in the initial sexual offense are more likely to be aware of the inherent risks and to take precautionary meas-ures if the offense takes place within a smaller or even remotely close network of family or friends. This is indeed what occurs in a large number of ado-lescent sexual offense cases. Another example of factors related to re-offense rates and victim selection is the increased awareness of risk that is pres-ent within a closer circle of individuals who potentially serve as sources of supervision and monitoring for adoles-cent sexual offenders. This could include family and community mem-bers as well as school personnel or oth-ers charged with the care and protec-tion of children.
Developmental Implications for Risk Assessment and Classification The use of actuarial assessment tools used in combination with structured clinical interviewing is becoming the standard of practice for risk assessment procedures of adult male sex offenders (Hanson, 2000). Within the past few years, there has been a notable increase of research in this area, and several actuarially based tools for the assess-ment of risk in adult sexual offenders have emerged. These include the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offender Recidivism (RRASOR; Hanson, 1997), the Static 99 (Hanson & Thornton, 1998), and the Minnesota Multiphasic Sex Offender Screening Tool–Revised (MnSOST-R; Epperson et al., 2000). Further, some of these tools are designed to be completed with information obtained solely from
record reviews. Nevertheless, while sev-eral actuarial risk assessment measures are currently under development for adolescent sexual offenders, no such measures are currently available for this population (Hunter & Figueredo, 1999; Prentky et al., 2000; Medoff, 2000c; Worling & Curwen, 2001).
As previously discussed, the develop-mental stage of adolescence may well play a role in the low sexual-offense recidivism rates found among juvenile sexual offenders, and this has hindered research focused on generating actuari-al risk assessment measures for this population. One reason for this is that such research relies heavily upon sexual re-offense as an outcome variable, and low rates of re-offense obstruct the analysis that is needed for this purpose. In a sample of 96 juvenile sexual offenders, only 3% recidivated during their follow-up period, and validation of their Juvenile Sex Offender Assess-ment Protocol (JSOAP) was unsuccess-ful (Prentky, Harris, Frizzell, & Right-hand, 2000) Other actuarial risk assess-ment measures for adolescent sexual offenders under development at this time include the Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR; Worling & Curwen, 2001) and the Multidimensional Assessment of Sex and Aggression (MASA; Knight, Prentky, & Cerce, 1994; R.A. Knight, personal communication, May, 2001).
Because of the lack of any available actuarial risk-assessment tools for juve-nile sex offenders, clinical interviewing becomes a necessary aspect of assessing risk in this population. In fact, some professionals in the field have strongly recommended a combined assessment approach making use of existing assess-ment tools to generate a structured clinical interview (Medoff &
Kin-scherff, in press). Structured clinical interviews of this kind would need to assess several types of data, including risk factors that have empirical support, the content domain of available risk-assessment tools, and information that may not be included in existing tools, such as potential protective factors, potentially complicating clinical fac-tors, and factors associated with readi-ness for treatment. In addition, any such evaluation also needs to include other dynamic factors of risk that are obtained only through the interview. These include the offender’s cognitive and emotional states at the time of the offense, any externally or internally based cues preceding the offense, and other offender- and offense-based char-acteristics. The significant majority of these data are not obtained through a review of records alone, and given the state of risk assessment for adolescent sexual offenders, to conduct a risk assessment based solely upon a review of records is likely inadequate and potentially unethical. Therefore, any professional who conducts risk assess-ments of juvenile sexual offenders should be familiar with the risk-assess-ment tools that are available, should routinely rely on these tools to struc-ture their lines of inquiry, and should use a model of assessment that involves multidimensional factors and multiple sources of information.
Intervention with Adolescent Sexual Offenders
Research indicates that certain types of adolescent sexual offenders appear to be
more amenable to sex-offender-specific treatment than certain types of adult sexual offenders. Several factors related to the developmental status of adoles-cence influence treatment, as the potential for change involving adaptive growth and treatment-gain is enhanced in individuals with a less-than-fully developed personality structure. Fur-ther, the potential benefit some adoles-cents obtain from treatment is likely related to under-developed cognitive and emotional capacities that occur within this formative stage. Also likely to play a role in this phenomenon is the lesser opportunity that sexual deviance has to become entrenched. Taken together, the presence of these factors bode for a greater potential benefit from treatment, and research has demonstrated a good effect for treat-ment among some adolescent sexual offenders (Borduin, Henggeler, Blaske, & Stein, 1990; Center for Sex Offend-er Management, 1999; Worling & Curwen, 2000a; Righthand & Welch, 2001). Treatment is particularly benefi-cial in the presence of a limited history of delinquent conduct.
Conclusions
Although somewhat more limited than research with adult sexual offenders, research of adolescent sexual offenders identifies several significant factors related to sexual misconduct among this population. These include indica-tions that adolescents re-offend sexual-ly at a much lower rate than adult sex-ual offenders, adolescents are much more likely to offend against a family
member or an acquaintance than a stranger, and some adolescents are amenable to sex-offender-specific treat-ment. These observations appear to stem, at least in part, from several developmental influences that have been discussed in this article, and should be included as part of the deci-sion-making process in the forensic assessment of this population.
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”
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About the Author
David Medoff, Ph.D., earned his bach-elor’s degree in Psychology from Boston University and his master’s degree and doctorate in clinical psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He completed his pre-doctoral internship at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, and a post-doctoral Fellowship in forensic psychology at the Massachu-setts General Hospital, Harvard Med-ical School. Dr. Medoff is an Assistant Professor at Suffolk University and the Director of Training for the Children and the Law Program, Law and Psychi-atry Service at the Massachusetts Gen-eral Hospital. He is an instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and a forensic psychologist who writes, teaches, and lectures on a wide variety of forensic and clinical topics.
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