Offending Histories and Offending Behaviour: A Ten Year Follow-Up of Sex Offenders Tried by Sheriff and District Courts in Grampian, Scotland

• NCJ Number: 172487
• Journal: Psychology, Crime, and Law Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (1994) Pages: 83-92
• Author(s): K J Mair; R H Stevens
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Switzerland

Annotation

From criminal complaint records, all incidents of sexual misbehavior that resulted in charges in three northeast Scotland courts during 1981 and 1982 were traced; of the 80 alleged offenders, 75 were followed up for 10 years using current criminal records.

Abstract

In Scotland, offenses that carry a penalty of three or more years' imprisonment are tried in the high court, and those carrying lesser penalties are tried in sheriff and district courts. Sex offenders who commit offenses that are considered less serious will therefore be tried by these courts. This study focused on such sex offenders. Among the 75 offenders followed up for 10 years, offending behavior ranged from obscene telephone calls to rape. Half the offenders made no physical contact with their victims. These "hands-off" offenders were compared with "hands-on" offenders and were found to show a higher prevalence of sexual convictions both before the index offense and in the follow-up period. Those offenders who removed their victim's clothes or had sexual intercourse with their victims were found to have the lowest prevalence of sexual reoffending. Degree of intrusiveness was inversely related to sexual recidivism in this sample, and there was no evidence of progression over time to more intrusive offending. These results run counter to the widespread belief that minor sex offenders may progress to more violent acts. Support for this belief apparently comes primarily from retrospective studies (Longo and McFadin, 1981; Longo and Groth, 1983; Abel, Mittleman and Becker, 1985), which may be misleading because they do not take into account the frequency and the under-recording of the minor offenses and also because their samples are drawn from men in treatment who may not be typical of sex offenders in general. Those follow-up studies that compare indecent exposers with other sex offenders and also look at the nature of their reconvictions show findings that are consistent with those found in the current study. Overall, most offenders repeat the same type of offense, and those who commit a more serious offense are outnumbered by those whose offenses become more trivial over time. 5 tables, 1 figure, and 17 references