NCJ Number
118251
Date Published
1979
Length
22 pages
Annotation
After defining and classifying sex offenses and offenders, this chapter addresses the basic causes of sex offenses, the incidence of sex offenses, sex offender profiles, and sex offender treatment and prevention.
Abstract
A sex offense is "an overt act committed by a person for his own immediate sexual gratification which is contrary to the prevailing sexual mores of the society in which he lives, and/or is legally punishable, and results in his being legally convicted." It is common practice to separate sex offenders into relatively "normal" persons who happened to commit a sex crime and "deviant" persons who have a basic psychological problem underlying their sexual offenses. Causes of sex offenses encompass biological, cultural, individual, and accidental factors. In the United States, police statistics show about 40,000 arrests annually for major sex offenses and several times that number for minor offenses, but these figures represent less than 5 percent of the sex offenses actually committed annually. Not only have cognitive-behavior methods for treating sex offenders seen notable advances during the past 20 years, but more conventional treatments, including psychoanalytic and psychoanalytically oriented procedures, have also advanced considerably. The prevention of sex offenses can be enhanced by increasing and improving the quality of sex education and emotional education for children, such that they will practice healthy and harmless sexual behaviors as adults. 138 references.