Court's Role in Providing Treatment for Adolescent Sexual Offenders

• NCJ Number: 128724
• Author(s): J Hamer
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 3 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: From the "Interchange" newsletter of the Adolescent Perpetrator Network, July 1984.

Annotation

Since acknowledgement of the seriousness of the offense is important for the treatment of a juvenile sex offender, the charge before the court and the court's adjudication of it should reflect the harm done to the victim and the offender's responsibility for it.

Abstract

Traditionally some courts, social workers, and mental health professionals have resisted viewing the adolescent sexual offender as a serious threat to the community. Opponents of the formal adjudication of adolescent sexual offenders argue that it destructively stigmatizes them and treats as serious deviancy harmless adolescent sexual experimentation. Such views have led to a relaxed handling of juveniles charged with sex offenses and have fostered treatment that focuses on broader developmental problems rather than the sexual offense itself and the harm done to the victim. This reinforces the tendency of the sexual offender to deny the seriousness of his behavior. Therapists who specialize in the treatment of sexual offenders agree that the first step in the treatment is the offender's awareness that his behavior has seriously harmed the victim and that society will not tolerate such behavior in the future. Behavioral change is therefore imperative. The courts can best serve the interests of treating the juvenile sexual offender through formal processing that compels the sexual offender to face up to the consequences of his behavior.