Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.003.0002
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter challenges the notion that the juvenile sex offender is a distinct category of juvenile offenders. The term juvenile sex offender is essentially a legal designation but it purports to ...
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This chapter challenges the notion that the juvenile sex offender is a distinct category of juvenile offenders. The term juvenile sex offender is essentially a legal designation but it purports to carry significant clinical meaning, since it provides little understanding or insight into who might be its recipient. For a category to have any scientific validity and clinical utility, it must be proven that the members of the group share a set of essential or core characteristics. Given that—apart from the defining sexual offense itself—there are no common markers or clinical signs that distinguish juvenile sex offenders from nonsex offenders, juvenile sexual offenders bear little resemblance to their adult counterpart.Less
This chapter challenges the notion that the juvenile sex offender is a distinct category of juvenile offenders. The term juvenile sex offender is essentially a legal designation but it purports to carry significant clinical meaning, since it provides little understanding or insight into who might be its recipient. For a category to have any scientific validity and clinical utility, it must be proven that the members of the group share a set of essential or core characteristics. Given that—apart from the defining sexual offense itself—there are no common markers or clinical signs that distinguish juvenile sex offenders from nonsex offenders, juvenile sexual offenders bear little resemblance to their adult counterpart.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226983578
- eISBN:
- 9780226983592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226983592.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter focuses on the measurement and meaning of sex crimes committed by children and adolescents in the United States. The starting point for this analysis is not arrest statistics or survey ...
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This chapter focuses on the measurement and meaning of sex crimes committed by children and adolescents in the United States. The starting point for this analysis is not arrest statistics or survey research, however, but rather a fundamental distinction in U.S. law between minors and adults which has profound impact not only on the rate of adolescent criminal sexual conduct but on the nature of the conduct that is considered unlawful. The objective of the criminal law regarding the sexual conduct of adults is regulatory. Even at its prohibitory high watermark, Anglo-American law never sought to forbid sexual intercourse between consenting spouses, and current legal policy allows most consensual sex between competent adults. Among the 200 million persons over eighteen in the United States, there are tens of millions of acts of sexual intercourse each week, and most of these are not violations of any criminal code.Less
This chapter focuses on the measurement and meaning of sex crimes committed by children and adolescents in the United States. The starting point for this analysis is not arrest statistics or survey research, however, but rather a fundamental distinction in U.S. law between minors and adults which has profound impact not only on the rate of adolescent criminal sexual conduct but on the nature of the conduct that is considered unlawful. The objective of the criminal law regarding the sexual conduct of adults is regulatory. Even at its prohibitory high watermark, Anglo-American law never sought to forbid sexual intercourse between consenting spouses, and current legal policy allows most consensual sex between competent adults. Among the 200 million persons over eighteen in the United States, there are tens of millions of acts of sexual intercourse each week, and most of these are not violations of any criminal code.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226983578
- eISBN:
- 9780226983592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226983592.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
The number of juveniles arrested for sex offenses has remained stable over the past quarter century and there are no indications that the behaviors leading to arrests or the likelihood of repetition ...
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The number of juveniles arrested for sex offenses has remained stable over the past quarter century and there are no indications that the behaviors leading to arrests or the likelihood of repetition of sex crime has changed much in the past few decades. Indeed, there is reason to believe that officially reported juvenile sex offenses other than forcible rape are spread more evenly across the cities and suburbs of developed nations and are also less variable over time than many other types of youth criminality. But while the frequency and type of sex offending by the young has remained stable in the United States during the last two decades or so, attitudes concerning how to best respond to the problem have changed. This chapter documents and explores some of these changes.Less
The number of juveniles arrested for sex offenses has remained stable over the past quarter century and there are no indications that the behaviors leading to arrests or the likelihood of repetition of sex crime has changed much in the past few decades. Indeed, there is reason to believe that officially reported juvenile sex offenses other than forcible rape are spread more evenly across the cities and suburbs of developed nations and are also less variable over time than many other types of youth criminality. But while the frequency and type of sex offending by the young has remained stable in the United States during the last two decades or so, attitudes concerning how to best respond to the problem have changed. This chapter documents and explores some of these changes.
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226983578
- eISBN:
- 9780226983592
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226983592.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter examines the operations and rationale for registration and community notification laws as they relate to juvenile sex offenders. The first section distinguishes between registration and ...
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This chapter examines the operations and rationale for registration and community notification laws as they relate to juvenile sex offenders. The first section distinguishes between registration and notification as sex-crime prevention strategies, and explores the assumptions about sex offenders that underlie their being singled out for registration and notification. The second section provides a profile of the treatment of juvenile offenders under different regimes of state notification and registration statutes. The next section contrasts the assumptions about offenders embedded in current registration and notification laws with the understanding of young offenders that informs the policies of most juvenile courts. Then, the chapter's final section discusses appropriate policy toward juvenile sex offenders in state registration and notification systems, and considers the options available to juvenile courts when such systems contradict policies the courts deem to be important.Less
This chapter examines the operations and rationale for registration and community notification laws as they relate to juvenile sex offenders. The first section distinguishes between registration and notification as sex-crime prevention strategies, and explores the assumptions about sex offenders that underlie their being singled out for registration and notification. The second section provides a profile of the treatment of juvenile offenders under different regimes of state notification and registration statutes. The next section contrasts the assumptions about offenders embedded in current registration and notification laws with the understanding of young offenders that informs the policies of most juvenile courts. Then, the chapter's final section discusses appropriate policy toward juvenile sex offenders in state registration and notification systems, and considers the options available to juvenile courts when such systems contradict policies the courts deem to be important.
Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.003.0003
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines the risk-assessment instruments for juvenile sex offenders. Initial studies do not support these instruments due to the consistently low base rate of reoffense of juvenile sex ...
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This chapter examines the risk-assessment instruments for juvenile sex offenders. Initial studies do not support these instruments due to the consistently low base rate of reoffense of juvenile sex offenders—too few juvenile sex offenders recidivate. As such, a sufficient degree of variability in the criterion behavior—in this case sexual recidivism—is necessary in order for the instrument to be effective. The most optimal condition for predictive validation occurs when the target behavior has a close to even chance of reoccurring. If the target event has a 50-50 chance of reoccurring, the instrument only needs to have a small amount of predictive accuracy.Less
This chapter examines the risk-assessment instruments for juvenile sex offenders. Initial studies do not support these instruments due to the consistently low base rate of reoffense of juvenile sex offenders—too few juvenile sex offenders recidivate. As such, a sufficient degree of variability in the criterion behavior—in this case sexual recidivism—is necessary in order for the instrument to be effective. The most optimal condition for predictive validation occurs when the target behavior has a close to even chance of reoccurring. If the target event has a 50-50 chance of reoccurring, the instrument only needs to have a small amount of predictive accuracy.
Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter argues that juvenile-sex-offender treatment is a dogmatic exercise, practiced by well-intentioned clinicians who apply routinary methods without giving attention to the individual needs ...
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This chapter argues that juvenile-sex-offender treatment is a dogmatic exercise, practiced by well-intentioned clinicians who apply routinary methods without giving attention to the individual needs of the adolescent. For instance, adolescents must admit that their sexual abuse was traumatic and damaging; to do so, their denial must be broken down with persistent in-your-face confrontation. Moreover, their treatment must be long-term, restrictive, and located in quasi correctional settings that often replicate the abuse of power in their early lives. The persistent use of these unfounded treatments reinforces the adolescents' identity as a sexual offender. In the process, the juvenile justice system fails to devote limited resources to the very small high-risk spectrum of juvenile sex offenders who actually need intervention.Less
This chapter argues that juvenile-sex-offender treatment is a dogmatic exercise, practiced by well-intentioned clinicians who apply routinary methods without giving attention to the individual needs of the adolescent. For instance, adolescents must admit that their sexual abuse was traumatic and damaging; to do so, their denial must be broken down with persistent in-your-face confrontation. Moreover, their treatment must be long-term, restrictive, and located in quasi correctional settings that often replicate the abuse of power in their early lives. The persistent use of these unfounded treatments reinforces the adolescents' identity as a sexual offender. In the process, the juvenile justice system fails to devote limited resources to the very small high-risk spectrum of juvenile sex offenders who actually need intervention.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814723852
- eISBN:
- 9780814724217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814723852.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Family Law
This chapter begins by providing basic information on the nature and extent of juvenile sex offending in the United States. It then discusses existing tensions in the development of appropriate ...
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This chapter begins by providing basic information on the nature and extent of juvenile sex offending in the United States. It then discusses existing tensions in the development of appropriate responses to juvenile sex offending based on social science research. The central paradox of the passing of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, in which the federal government required the registration of juvenile sex offenders, is the absolute void of any empirical support for the necessity and value of the act itself. When the few analyses of representative samples of juvenile sex offenders are re-examined, it becomes obvious that juvenile sex offending is a very poor predictor of adult sexual danger.Less
This chapter begins by providing basic information on the nature and extent of juvenile sex offending in the United States. It then discusses existing tensions in the development of appropriate responses to juvenile sex offending based on social science research. The central paradox of the passing of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, in which the federal government required the registration of juvenile sex offenders, is the absolute void of any empirical support for the necessity and value of the act itself. When the few analyses of representative samples of juvenile sex offenders are re-examined, it becomes obvious that juvenile sex offending is a very poor predictor of adult sexual danger.
Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.003.0008
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines wide-scale registration and community notification of sex offenders. These laws transfer the responsibility for surveillance from the state to the public, making the community ...
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This chapter examines wide-scale registration and community notification of sex offenders. These laws transfer the responsibility for surveillance from the state to the public, making the community manage and monitor the sexual offender. They have two primary aims: protection and prevention. For instance, an informed police force armed with knowledge about whom to watch can protect a community more easily; offenders in the community who believe they are under continuous surveillance will be deterred from future crimes. The deterrent effect for which these laws aim may in the end be lost on juvenile sex offenders. The application of these laws to such offenders fails to take into account adolescents' unique offense characteristics, as well as the negative impact of community labeling on them.Less
This chapter examines wide-scale registration and community notification of sex offenders. These laws transfer the responsibility for surveillance from the state to the public, making the community manage and monitor the sexual offender. They have two primary aims: protection and prevention. For instance, an informed police force armed with knowledge about whom to watch can protect a community more easily; offenders in the community who believe they are under continuous surveillance will be deterred from future crimes. The deterrent effect for which these laws aim may in the end be lost on juvenile sex offenders. The application of these laws to such offenders fails to take into account adolescents' unique offense characteristics, as well as the negative impact of community labeling on them.
Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.003.0009
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
This concluding chapter recapitulates the aim of the book, stating that the problem is not the juvenile sex offenders themselves but the society's conceptualization of them. In particular, the issue ...
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This concluding chapter recapitulates the aim of the book, stating that the problem is not the juvenile sex offenders themselves but the society's conceptualization of them. In particular, the issue is not the fact that the majority of juvenile sexual offenders are sexually deviant and at high risk for reoffense, but that they face a reality wherein they have been tagged as such, framed within a discourse of deviance that portrays them as sexual perverts—as shown by their specialized clinical classification and assessment, the treatment that focuses on them as deviant, and the legal strategies that label and stigmatize them. Thus, the only thing sexual juvenile offenders hold in common with each other is that they have committed a sexual offense—a legal designation that is insufficient to support the conceptualization of them as a distinct clinical category.Less
This concluding chapter recapitulates the aim of the book, stating that the problem is not the juvenile sex offenders themselves but the society's conceptualization of them. In particular, the issue is not the fact that the majority of juvenile sexual offenders are sexually deviant and at high risk for reoffense, but that they face a reality wherein they have been tagged as such, framed within a discourse of deviance that portrays them as sexual perverts—as shown by their specialized clinical classification and assessment, the treatment that focuses on them as deviant, and the legal strategies that label and stigmatize them. Thus, the only thing sexual juvenile offenders hold in common with each other is that they have committed a sexual offense—a legal designation that is insufficient to support the conceptualization of them as a distinct clinical category.
Frank C. DiCataldo
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814720011
- eISBN:
- 9780814785225
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814720011.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
Over the past two decades, concern about adolescent sex offenders has grown at an astonishing pace, garnering heated coverage in the media and providing fodder for television shows like Law and ...
More
Over the past two decades, concern about adolescent sex offenders has grown at an astonishing pace, garnering heated coverage in the media and providing fodder for television shows like Law and Order. Americans' reaction to such stories has prompted the unquestioned application to adolescents of harsh legal and clinical intervention strategies designed for serious adult offenders, with little attention being paid to the psychological maturity of the offender. Many strategies being used today to deal with juvenile sex offenders—and even to define what criteria to use in defining “juvenile sex offender”—do not have empirical support and, this book cautions, may be doing more harm to children and society than good. The book critiques the current system and its methods for treating and categorizing juveniles, and calls for a major reevaluation of how these cases should be managed in the future. Through an analysis of the history of the problem and an empirical review of the literature, including specific cases and their outcomes, it demonstrates that current practices are based more on our collective fears and moral passions than on any supportive science or sound policy.Less
Over the past two decades, concern about adolescent sex offenders has grown at an astonishing pace, garnering heated coverage in the media and providing fodder for television shows like Law and Order. Americans' reaction to such stories has prompted the unquestioned application to adolescents of harsh legal and clinical intervention strategies designed for serious adult offenders, with little attention being paid to the psychological maturity of the offender. Many strategies being used today to deal with juvenile sex offenders—and even to define what criteria to use in defining “juvenile sex offender”—do not have empirical support and, this book cautions, may be doing more harm to children and society than good. The book critiques the current system and its methods for treating and categorizing juveniles, and calls for a major reevaluation of how these cases should be managed in the future. Through an analysis of the history of the problem and an empirical review of the literature, including specific cases and their outcomes, it demonstrates that current practices are based more on our collective fears and moral passions than on any supportive science or sound policy.
Karel Kurst-Swanger and Jacqueline L. Petcosky
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195165180
- eISBN:
- 9780199864966
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165180.003.0003
- Subject:
- Social Work, Children and Families, Crime and Justice
This chapter explores a variety of issues and concerns relating to the maltreatment of children. It begins with an examination of the social and historical context in which society views and treats ...
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This chapter explores a variety of issues and concerns relating to the maltreatment of children. It begins with an examination of the social and historical context in which society views and treats children, and the economic, political, and social conditions related to the evolution of child welfare policy. Various forms of child maltreatment are addressed including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and the various forms of neglect. Current issues related to the various forms of maltreatment are examined including: corporal punishment, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, prenatal substance abuse, ritual abuse, and juvenile sexual offenders. The chapter also discusses ways that child development is affected by maltreatment, specifically reviewing the research regarding the short-term and long-term consequences to cognitive, affective, and physical growth and development.Less
This chapter explores a variety of issues and concerns relating to the maltreatment of children. It begins with an examination of the social and historical context in which society views and treats children, and the economic, political, and social conditions related to the evolution of child welfare policy. Various forms of child maltreatment are addressed including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and the various forms of neglect. Current issues related to the various forms of maltreatment are examined including: corporal punishment, Munchausen syndrome by proxy, prenatal substance abuse, ritual abuse, and juvenile sexual offenders. The chapter also discusses ways that child development is affected by maltreatment, specifically reviewing the research regarding the short-term and long-term consequences to cognitive, affective, and physical growth and development.
Franklin E. Zimring and David S. Tanenhaus (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479816873
- eISBN:
- 9781479863402
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479816873.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This is a hopeful but complicated era for those with ambitions to reform the juvenile courts and youth-serving public institutions in the United States. As advocates plea for major reforms, many fear ...
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This is a hopeful but complicated era for those with ambitions to reform the juvenile courts and youth-serving public institutions in the United States. As advocates plea for major reforms, many fear the public backlash in making dramatic changes. This book provides a look at the recent trends in juvenile justice as well as suggestions for reforms and policy changes in the future. Should youth be treated as adults when they break the law? How can youth be deterred from crime? What factors should be considered in how youth are punished? What role should the police have in schools? This book focuses on the most pressing issues of the day: the impact of neuroscience on our understanding of brain development and subsequent sentencing, the relationship of schools and the police, the issue of the school-to-prison pipeline, the impact of immigration, the privacy of juvenile records, and the need for national policies—including registration requirements—for juvenile sex offenders.Less
This is a hopeful but complicated era for those with ambitions to reform the juvenile courts and youth-serving public institutions in the United States. As advocates plea for major reforms, many fear the public backlash in making dramatic changes. This book provides a look at the recent trends in juvenile justice as well as suggestions for reforms and policy changes in the future. Should youth be treated as adults when they break the law? How can youth be deterred from crime? What factors should be considered in how youth are punished? What role should the police have in schools? This book focuses on the most pressing issues of the day: the impact of neuroscience on our understanding of brain development and subsequent sentencing, the relationship of schools and the police, the issue of the school-to-prison pipeline, the impact of immigration, the privacy of juvenile records, and the need for national policies—including registration requirements—for juvenile sex offenders.
