NCJ Number
170127
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Treatment of sexually abusive adolescents in Great Britain is discussed in terms of the characteristics of these youth, the characteristics of the professionals involved in treatment, the impact of the work on professionals, and organizational issues.
Abstract
Abusive adolescents vary widely with respect to their physical characteristics, intellectual and educational development, homes and families, social skills, antisocial behaviors, and psychological characteristics. Their impact on the worker may result from a specific feature or from the severity of their profile. The process of evaluating the adolescent should include a specific assessment of the risk to the workers. Institutional staff also need to be aware of youths' consensual and non-consensual sexual targeting of one another. The core issue for workers is the treatability of the adolescents; workers make early judgments about this factor. Workers themselves have histories that may include abuse and that interact with their temperaments and subsequent history to determine their personal thoughts, feelings, and behavior patterns toward abusive adolescents. Other difficult issues for workers include transference and countertransference, the motivation for working with abusers, and power and control over the abuser. Organizations must be careful in recruiting, selecting, and supervising workers. Organizations should also create a safe setting, use a team approach wherever possible, establish a clear monitoring structure for work done singly; and clearly define policies and procedures.