Sexual Offending

Sexual Offences Act 2003

**** and Consent

Penetration without consent of the vagina, mouth or anus by the penis

Consent is when the individual agrees by their own choice to the sexual activity being carried out and has the freedom and capacity to make that decision

Additional offences may be assault by penetration or sexual assault

Age of consent is 16

Penetration, sexual contact and inciting children to engage in sexual activity under the age of 13 is illegal, and when the perpetrator is 18 or older and the victim is under 16 is also illegal

Additional offences may be sexual contact with someone age 16 or 17 may be illegal when there is an abuse of trust

Child sexual offences within the family

Grooming

Offences against an individual with a mental  disorder that prevents them from being able to make the decision

Europe

Laws vary dependant on country

Age of consent varies from 14 in Portugal, Italy and Germany, and 18 in Malta, Turkey and Vatican City

United States of America

Age of consent varies from 16 to 18 dependant on the state

1 in every 5 women may experience **** or attempted **** during their lifetime according to Macdonald 2000

For women aged 15-44 **** and domestic violence are higher risk factors for death and disability than cancer, war and motor vehicle accidents

In the USA annual rates of **** have reduced by 80% since 1973 in comparison to a 57% reduction rate for murder according to Pinker 2011

1 in 4 university students have been ****d according to Pinker 2011

It is estimated that in the UK annually there are 430,000 to 517,000 sexual offences, with 60,000 to 95,000 of these being ****

A  meta-analysis of global rates of child sexual abuse with victims under the age of 18 shows 4 to 19% for boys and 11 to 22% for girls according to Stolenborgh et al 2014

Wortley 2009 examined misconceptions about child sexual abuse and deducted that…

“Stranger Danger” misconceptions

56.5% of these perpetrators lived with the victim, 36.9% knew the child and 6.5% were strangers

69% of the offences happened at the child’s home

“********** Rings” misconceptions

Prior to arrest 8% had talked to other offenders

4% were members of a ********** group

“Most child sexual offenders are gay” misconceptions

When they were asked their sexual orientation 76% said female only, 8% said male only and 13% said both genders

While the victims were 72% female and 28% gay

Offenders with male victims have more victims on average

Paedophilia is a sexual preference for children, of either genders, usually of prepubertal age or early pubertal age according to WHO 1997

40-50% of contact offenders are paedophilic according to Seto 2008

When measuring sexual interest, it was traditionally measured through arousal levels, but less direct methods are being developed, by looking at reaction times to stimuli to discover whether they are distracted by the stimuli that they find sexually appealing (O Ciardha and Gormley 2012)

Child molestation includes anyone who commits a contact sexual offence against a child, whether they have paedophilic intent or not

Divided into incest / interfamilial which shows less evidence of paedophilia with lower re offence rates

Divided into unrelated / extra familial which shows greater sexual interest in male children with greater risk of reoffending

Female offenders are believed to be responsible for 4 to 5 % of all sexual offence, with only 1% being in the prison population

Many will be a co-offender to a male

Social and cultural views of women see female abuse as less harmful

Female abuse is less likely to be reported

Victims are less likely to report

Internet has made it easy to access child ***********

Child *********** offenders show a greater paedophilic arousal than contact offenders according to Seto et al 2006

Every 1 in 8 will have an officially recorded contact offence according to Seto et al 2011

50% will self-report a contact offence

Reoffending rates are lower

Commonly rapists are stereotyped as strangers

However **** is often carried out within marriages, by acquaintances, on dates, by multiple perpetrators (fraternities, gangs, war ****) and within prisons

In the US Justice Department it is estimated than yearly there are 216,000 victims of sexual assault in prisons

Neuropsychological functioning

Clinical symptoms / State factors

Sexual offending

Maintenance / escalation

Ecological Niche          Social Learning

Brain Development          Biological Functioning

Biology

Genetics

Evolution

Recent research directs us to there being pre-natal influences on sexual offending, particularly paedophilia

Ecological

Social context of offender

Socio-cultural environment

Personal circumstances

Physical violence

According to Glasser et al 2001 35% of male abusers had been victims in the past and 11% of male non-abusers had been victims

Cultural norms facilitate sexual violence, **** myth acceptance

Group processes, multiple perpetrator ****, **** in war

Neuropsychological functioning

Motivation / emotion

Perception / memory

Action selection and control

Traits

Still requires further investigation

However it is seen as trait factors that were sexually offending is a predisposition to the individual

State / risk factors that you may see clinically

Symptoms that you can observe in an offender

Emotional problems when regulating behaviour / inability to self-regulate

Social difficulties, need for intimacy and/or control

Deviant arousal

Offence – supportive cognitions

O Ciardha and Ward 2013

Beliefs that effect how an offender sees the world

Beliefs about themselves, the victims and the world

Within 31,216 offenders looked at over an overage of 5 to 6 years, Hanson and Morton Bourgon discovered that sexual recidivism rates were at 13.7%, violent nonsexual recidivism rates were at 14% and any other recidivism was at 36.9%

Reoffenders within sexual violence crimes are low and recidivism is more likely to occur within non sexual related crimes

Desistance is slowing down, or completely cutting out offending behaviour

Natural desistance suggests that crime is a young man’s game

Cognitive transformation suggests that recreating an offenders identity through gradual or sudden change encourages desistance

Informal social control is where the offender begins to enter a stage of stability, looking towards a future including marriage and employment

Risk Needs Responsivity (Andrews and Bonta)

Good lives ward and colleagues provide group treatments, broadly cognitive behavioural approaches to treatment

Focuses on the needs of the group not the individual

Works with a positive psychology ethos

Studies by Marshall et al 2013 show that treatment can reduces recidivism rates by approx. 27% to 43%

Treatment mainly works when targeting criminogenic needs, by being responsive, using procedures shown to be effective towards specific targets and when it is based around the strengths of the individual being treated