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Juvenile Sex Offenders

Juvenile Sex Offenders. Class 21. Last Class. Why not a Specialized Juvenile Court for sex offenders?. Four Issues. Definitions Sex Offenders and the Conundrum of Adolescence Determinism Assumptions of Inevitability and Stability of Sex Offending Legal Reactions Punishment

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Juvenile Sex Offenders

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  1. Juvenile Sex Offenders Class 21

  2. Last Class • Why not a Specialized Juvenile Court for sex offenders?

  3. Four Issues • Definitions • Sex Offenders and the Conundrum of Adolescence • Determinism • Assumptions of Inevitability and Stability of Sex Offending • Legal Reactions • Punishment • Beyond Punishment • Imagining Alternatives • Legal and Social Policy

  4. Behavioral Considerations in Defining Sex Offenders • “Age appropriateness” considerations • Heuristic Categories • Non-contact sexual behaviors • Experimentation • Coercion • Violence • Similar explanations? • Co-morbidity of other mental health conditions • Behavioral co-morbidity

  5. Determinism • Twin Issues motivating laws • Inevitability of subsequent offending (prediction problem) • Inevitability of treatment failure • Recidivism of treatment participants over age-graded base rate of re-offending • Do improvements in the prediction of violence translate into better predictions of sex offending • For adults? • For juveniles? • Data • 7-13% recidivism rates over 5 years, compared to 50% for other offenses

  6. Problems and Issues with Treatment • What are we treating? • Heterogeneity of causal paths • Co-morbid mental health conditions • Co-morbid sexual deviance • Immaturity dimensions • Social judgment, risk taking, thrill seeking, impulsivity • How are we treating it? • Addiction models • Behaviorist models • Psychogenic models

  7. Source: Lisa L. Sample and Timothy M. Bray, Are Sex Offenders Dangerous? 3Criminology and Public Policy 59-82 (2003).

  8. Legal Reactions • Jurisdictional Boundary – preference for waiver for more serious cases • Punishment • Contradiction of jurisdictional transfer and therapeutic regime -- Waiver has its own effects that complicate treatment • Limitations on correctional treatment of juvenile sex offenders in adult correctional placements

  9. Beyond Punishment • Civil Commitment • Prediction problems are reified into inevitability by statute and case law • Hendricks, Crane – commitment limited to those who are “violent” or dangerous • Registration and Notification • Thresholds to mandate registration • Methods of notification • Adolescent-specific jurisprudence (Ohio) • Offenses – broader or narrower than for adults? • Different risk thresholds, 3 tiers • Different procedures for notification at each tier • Limitations of registration at each tier

  10. Notification and the Stigma Avoidance Prong of the Juvenile Court • Defeated by notification? • Ring Issues • Evidentiary hearing to determine recidivism risk

  11. Alternatives • Bankruptcy Model • Non-criminal • Leveraging power of the court • Greater authority to respond to supply of services • Mutual accountability between court, service providers, and offender • Inherently democratic

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