NCJ Number
210724
Journal
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2005 Pages: 333-352
Date Published
2005
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article reports on the findings of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, a prospective, longitudinal study that compared violent male sex offenders (n=39) with violent nonsexual offenders (n=430) on 66 demographic and psychosocial characteristics.
Abstract
The study began in 1987 with three samples of boys in public-school grades one, four, and seven. Only the two older groups were included in the current study. During the first 3 years of the study, the boys and their primary caretakers were interviewed at home every other year. After this period, the older sample was interviewed annually. The juveniles' teachers completed a questionnaire at the same time. The first 16 assessments of the oldest sample (up to 25 years old) and 7 assessments of the middle sample (up to 13 years old) were used. Attrition rates for both samples were low. For the current study, 986 boys in the middle and oldest samples were placed in 5 mutually exclusive groups based on a combination of self-reported delinquency data and official criminal records. The findings show that juvenile sex offenders, particularly those who committed violent sex offenses such as rape and sexual assault, were similar to nonsexual violence offenders in many aspects. Regarding the childhood factors measured, sex offenders tended to differ from violent offenders in the areas of academic achievement (higher) and running away (more). It was not possible to disentangle the developmental pathways of different types of antisocial behavior. Regarding socio-demographic characteristics, sex offenders were more likely than nonsexual violent offenders to live in poor housing conditions located in better neighborhoods. Study limitations and future research are discussed. 3 tables and 54 references