Juvenile Sex Offenders

Profiles of juveniles with sex offense charges referred for competence evaluations

Juveniles referred for adjudicative competence evaluations make up a subset of youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Among those referred for adjudicative competence evaluations, a significant number involve youth with current or past charges for sexual offenses. This study examines the profiles of youth with sexual offense charges who have been referred for competence evaluations at a state psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents. Differences between the characteristics of youth with and without sexual offenses were explored, and predictors of competence opinions were examined among the subset of youth with current or prior sexual charges (juveniles with sexual offenses, or JSOs). Findings indicated that youth with sexual offenses have several demographic, cognitive, clinical, and legal differences from youth without sexual offenses. Although youth with sexual offenses were less likely to be opined competent, presence of a sexual offense was not a predictor of competence opinions after controlling for other factors. Predictors of competence among JSOs were found to be similar to those among youth referred for competence evaluations in general. Primary diagnosis of an autism-related disorder was a unique predictor of being opined not competent among the JSO subgroup, but not the overall sample. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

A Meta-Analysis of Viewing Time Measures of Sexual Interest in Children

Due to unobtrusiveness and ease of implementation, viewing time (VT) measures of sexual interest in children have sparked increasing research interest in forensic contexts over the last two decades. The current study presents two meta-analyses of VT measures adapted to assess pedophilic interest to determine their discrimination between sexual offenders against children (SOC) and non-SOC groups as well as convergent validity (associations with other measures of sexual interest in children). On average, VT measures showed moderate discrimination between criterion groups (fixed-effect d = 0.60, 95 % CI [0.51, 0.68], N = 2705, k = 14) and significant convergent validity with self-reports, penile plethysmography, Implicit Association Tests, and offence behavioral measures ranging from r = .18 to r = .38. VT measures, however, provided better discrimination for adults (fixed-effect d = 0.78, 95 % CI [0.64, 0.92]) than adolescent samples (fixed-effect d = 0.50, 95 % CI [0.40, 0.61]), Q _between = 9.37, p = .002. Moreover, compared to absolute scores, using pedophilic difference scores within adult samples substantially increased VT measures' validity (fixed-effect d = 1.03, 95 % CI [0.82, 1.25], N = 414, k = 7). Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and applied implications for forensic contexts.