NCJ Number
198329
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2003 Pages: 93-105
Date Published
January 2003
Length
13 pages
Annotation
Connections between childhood family characteristics and sexual offending by men are addressed in this article.
Abstract
Focusing on a wide range of negative childhood family characteristics, this article describes these characteristics as risk factors for later sexual offending by males. After arguing that individuals’ early life experiences guide and influence the ways that people think, act, and react throughout their lifetimes, these authors briefly discuss recent research describing developmental risk factors applicable for explaining nonsexual antisocial behaviors. Turning to a discussion of the negative childhood family characteristics that are likely to increase the likelihood of sexual offending in adulthood, the article describes inadequate parent-child bonding, parental neglect and disrupted parental care, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and parental deviance as contributing to children’s adjustment problems in school and difficulties with peers. Addressing the personal characteristics in children that are associated with later risks of sexual offending, the authors discuss interpersonal difficulties, hyperactivity, impulsivity, antisocial behavior, precocious sexual behavior, and empathy deficits as negative personality characteristics that are contributors in later sexual offending. The authors conclude that future studies need to compare children with and without these hypothesized risk factors in order to fully determine whether the wide range of childhood family and personological risk factors do contribute to later sexual offending by males. References