NCJ Number
215305
Date Published
2006
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses the relationship between situational risk for child molesters and the "good lives" model of rehabilitation.
Abstract
Situational approaches to offending focus on the relationship between offender and victim and why specific crimes are committed. Situational analyses aim to predict high-risk times, places, and persons, based on personal choices that increase the likelihood that an individual with certain characteristics will engage in risky and criminal behavior. Routine-activities theory and rational-choice theory are based in this view of criminal behavior. Routine activities theory proposes that three factors must be present for a crime to occur: a likely offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian to deter or challenge the offending behavior. Rational-choice theory builds on opportunity theories and argues that crime is a calculated and deliberate event based on the offender's assessment of risks compared to rewards in a specific situation. When applied to persons at risk for the sexual abuse of children, this means that they commit their crimes when they have either chosen or encountered a situation in which they find a suitable potential victim (a child of preferred gender) in the context of an opportunity for committing the crime without a high risk of being stopped or caught. Whereas, some theorists recommend using a risk-management model for addressing child sexual abuse, i.e., attempting to ensure that high-risk child molesters are prevented from being in tempting environments, this chapter favors a good-lives model of offender rehabilitation, which involves guiding offenders into fulfilling alternatives to the sexual abuse of children, which leads to their personal choice to avoid risky situations. 64 references