Sexuality, antisocial behavior, aggressiveness, and victimization in juvenile sexual offenders: A literature review
Abstract
The present review focuses on six factors that have been addressed in the literature about juvenile sexual offenders 1: general delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse, aggressiveness and psychopathology, sexuality, sexual deviance, and victimization experiences. Empirical findings are characterized by great heterogeneity. Due to a lack of standardized assessment and because of different study groups they rarely facilitate direct comparisons. In an endeavor to clarify this vast heterogeneity, the purpose of this overview is to enlighten actual findings about these factors and on the role that has been assigned to them in the literature. Special attention is paid to comparison studies. A detailed description of the studies in tables 2 allows for an overview of the results and an evaluation with respect to sample size, instruments, and type of study groups. The overview does not claim completeness; it is a narrative, none-systematic review 3. In summary the review showed that in most cases, juvenile sexual offending cannot be understood as an expression of more general juvenile delinquency and-in contrast to other groups of juvenile delinquents-the sexual offenders report less non-sexual delinquent behavior. Alcohol and drug abuse have been reported less often as well, but they might play a more important role as situational factors. Externalizing problems apears more often in juvenile sexual offenders with peer/adult victims who are also non-sexually delinquent. Regarding sexuality, some studies indicate that juvenile sexual offenders are impaired in their sexual development, but they were rarely described as sexually isolated.