NCJ Number
192580
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2002 Pages: 1-19
Date Published
2002
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This literature review focuses on adolescent sex offenders with mental retardation and provides guidelines for assessment procedures that can identify such offenders.
Abstract
Assessors of adolescent sex offenders with mental retardation cannot disregard the culture in which individuals exist; nor can assessors ignore the additional emotional and behavioral difficulties that these individuals often experience. By definition, individuals with mental retardation suffer from varying degrees of social deficits. Individuals' environments (e.g., residential placement) may limit normative behaviors while facilitating deviant sexual offenses. The determination of the risk of recidivism must consider the risks of different environmental contexts. Concurrent disorders (e.g., depression, attention-deficit) may also serve to inhibit or support sexual offending. Typologies of offenders are clinically irrelevant unless an individual evaluation comprises a comprehensive multi-method battery (e.g., interview, behavioral observations, and objective and projective psychological tests). In addition, although clinical judgment and shared professional experiences offer insight, they have not provided collective knowledge or validated assessment protocols for these youth. Respectable works are now beginning to appear with comprehensive assessment protocols that evaluate the multiple issues presented by sexually abusive adolescents; however, these efforts offer only guidelines that clinicians necessarily must "fine-tune" to reflect the individualized circumstances and needs of each presenting individual. Areas for future research are suggested. 53 references