Violent Sexual Offending
Violent Sexual Offending Jennifer K. Grotpeter Delbert S. Elliott Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence Institute of Behavioral Science University of Colorado Boulder, CO December, 2002 Introduction In the last twenty years, most segments of Western society, particularly law enforcement agencies and clinicians, have recognized the deleterious effects of the sexual assault of women and sexual exploitation of children (e.g., Furby, Weinrott, & Blackshaw, 1989; Weinrott, 1996; Hanson & Bussiere, 1998). In particular, recent media focus on high profile sexual offenses has highlighted to the public incidents of sexual offending in a wide range of offender-victim relationships, including strangers, neighbors, family members, and members of the clergy. These have resulted in contentious public dialogue about where sexual offenders may live after they have served their time, and in some cases, whether they should have to serve that time at all. Society’s resolve to prevent sexual assault has resulted in the development of numerous treatment services for sexual offenders (Barbaree, Hudson, & Seto, 1993). While a great deal of clinical research has focused on the topic, little prospective longitudinal research has been conducted on the etiology and long-term trajectories of sex offenders (see Barbaree, et al., 1993; Weinrott, 1996). The goal of the present work is to summarize briefly the theoretical explanations for sexual violent behavior, to review what has been found in past research about the epidemiology and social development of sexual offenders, and to examine self-reported and official data on sexual offending from the National Youth Survey, a nationally-representative, longitudinal, prospective study of youth as they age into adulthood.
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