Adolescent Sexual Perpetrator: A New Challenge in the Field of Sexual Abuse

• NCJ Number: 117814
• Author(s): D Finkelhor
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. An address presented at a national training conference on "Treating the Juvenile Sexual Abuse Perpetrator" in Bloomington, Minn., April 27-30, 1986.

Annotation

This address discusses the causes of adolescent sexual offenses and some opportunities for and barriers to the treatment of adolescent sexual offenders.

Abstract

In determining the dynamics of adolescent sexual deviance, it is important to determine what emotional needs and conflicts are being met or resolved by the deviant sexual conduct. Contributing factors in such deviance are the withholding of parental nurturing and intimacy from young boys to foster "tough" masculinity, failure to encourage boys to express their empathy in interacting with young children, the development of negative attitudes toward women, and the reinforcement of dangerous myths regarding women's attitudes toward coerced sex. The deviance can be compounded by an absence of developmental experiences that would help the adolescent resolve emotional needs through constructive behaviors. New treatment opportunities emerging include earlier prevention of sexual abuse, a better understanding of the sources of the problem, more policy support for offender treatment, an alliance between offender and victim treatment, more service providers, and a new and improved coalition for sex education for children and adolescents. Some barriers to the treatment of juvenile sex offenders are the public's disposition toward punishing such offenders, lack of governmental commitment to treatment, and the low professional status given to those who work with such offenders.