NCJ Number
177648
Date Published
1998
Length
65 pages
Annotation
This review of the literature on sex offending against children focuses on the extent and nature of child sexual abuse, the characteristics of offenders, and the risks posed by them as well as the ways in which these risks can be managed.
Abstract
The target audience for this report is the British police service, as it addresses those studies that have the most relevance to police officers in their interactions with offenders who have committed sex offenses against children. Official sex- offense statistics underestimate the annual incidence of sex offenses against children. The author discusses a number of strategies for addressing this problem and concludes that records kept by individual police forces, if systematically examined, would provide valuable information about the true incidence of child sexual abuse as well as regional variations in it. Those who sexually offend against children constitute a heterogeneous group. The literature suggests that 60 percent to 70 percent of child molesters target only girls; approximately 20 percent to 33 percent molest boys. The majority of perpetrators victimize children known to them, with approximately 80 percent of offenses occurring in the home of either the offender or the victim. Only about 25-40 percent of offenders show a recurrent and intense sexual attraction to children that would qualify them as pedophiles. Those who sexually offend against children have a rate of nonsexual criminal convictions only slightly greater than men in the general population. Adolescent sex offenders account for up to one-third of all sex crimes. Less than 5 percent of sex offenses against children are known to have been committed by women. The majority of sex offenders against children act alone. Other findings are that a history of sexual abuse as a child is neither necessary nor sufficient to lead to adult sexual offending; approximately 20 percent of those convicted of sex offenses against children are reconvicted for similar offenses; and multiagency management strategies will be necessary to reduce the risks of recidivism by known sex offenders. 6 tables and 98 references