NCJ Number
170758
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1998) Pages: 109-124
Date Published
1998
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This study compared recidivism rates of juvenile sex offenders with those of other juvenile offenders once they became young adults and found juveniles adjudicated for sex offenses had significantly higher recidivism rates for sex offenses as adults than a comparison group.
Abstract
Records for 306 juvenile offenders were drawn from the files of Idaho's centralized observation and assessment center, the Juvenile Diagnostic Unit (JDU). The sample included 388 Caucasians, 10 Native Americans, and 8 Hispanics. The juvenile sex offender group consisted of 164 subjects whose referral offenses were nonviolent sex offenses toward children younger than 16 years of age. The comparison group included 142 juvenile offenders who had been adjudicated for crimes other than sexual assault. Data on the following variables were collected from JDU files: age at time of placement, date of birth, and type and frequency of adjudicated juvenile offenses. Findings showed 9.7 percent of juvenile sex offenders and 3 percent of juvenile non-sex offenders were arrested for sex crimes as young adults. In all cases, recidivism rates were much lower than those reported in retrospective studies using samples drawn from clinical programs and self-reports. Although juveniles adjudicated for sex offenses had a significantly higher rate of recidivism for sex offenses as adults than the comparison group, rearrest rates for sex offenses were low in both groups. Juvenile non-sex offenders had higher rates of adult recidivism for all other offense types. 19 references and 1 table