NCJ Number
201264
Journal
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 15 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2003 Pages: 161-170
Date Published
July 2003
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This descriptive Canadian research provides the first comprehensive description of perpetrators involved in hostage-takings and forcible confinements that involved sexual assaults.
Abstract
Investigative reports that chronicled the incidents and described the perpetrators and the victims were examined over an 11-year period (1989-2000). Additional information was obtained from a review of the Offender Management System, a Canadian national database used to track an offender's interactions with the Canadian criminal justice system. A hostage-taking was defined by the use of the hostage as an instrument for negotiation; whereas, the purpose of a forcible confinement was to obtain something directly from the hostage. For the purpose of this research, the word "incidents" refers to a hostage-taking/forcible-confinement with or without a sexual assault. There were 33 incidents that involved 40 perpetrators. There were 20 hostage-takings (3 with sexual assault) and 13 forcible confinements (7 with sexual assaults). Sexual assaults were always against women, and 36.6 percent of the women victims were sexually assaulted. The perpetrators constituted a violent group of offenders with a prior history of sexual and nonsexual violence as well as escapes. Half had a prior history of such incidents. Offenders convicted of prior rapes were overwhelmingly implicated in incidents that resulted in a sexual assault. Most perpetrators were younger than 30 years old. The perpetrators were not clearly different from the general population of offenders in terms of their needs. These findings are discussed regarding their relevance to policy, operational practices, and the development of offender screening instruments. 1 table and 11 references