NCJ Number
227004
Date Published
April 2009
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the characteristics of ethnicity and juveniles with sexual behavior problems.
Abstract
The results indicated that sex offending was different among the races, with the five most common sexual offenses indicating racial differences in incidences of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault of a child, sexual assault of an adult, indecency with a child involving sexual contact, and indecency with a child involving exposure. The percentage of Blacks who had sexual behavior problems was almost twice that of Blacks in the population. The percentage of Hispanics who had sexual behavior problems was much less than that of Hispanics in the population. Whites were the most likely to commit aggravated sexual assault compared to the other races, and surpassed other groups in the number of cases committed for truancy, burglary, and runaway. There was a preponderance of alleged juvenile sexual offense referrals who were Black among those who were in special education classes; inferred was that Black juvenile sex offenders referred for indecency with children involving exposure and those referred for sexual assault were also more likely than Hispanics to be in special education classes, inconsistent with the finding among nonsexual offenders. Blacks in special education were in the minority except for theft of items valued at $50 to $500, where their numbers surpassed those of Whites and Hispanics. The special education group showed Hispanics to have the highest number of those committed for marijuana possession and for expulsion from alternative educational programs. Data were collected from the characteristics of 181,492 Black, Hispanic, and White juveniles, 5,439 of whom had sexual behavior problems and a remaining control group of 181,053 with no sexual behavior problems. Tables, figures, and references