Abstract
Sexual abuse of children is disturbingly frequent, making it critical to understand the behavior of sexual offenders against children. The etiology is not well understood, but likely involves biological, cognitive, and personality factors as well as offenders’ early life experiences. Offender typologies have been developed, although assessment often reveals a history of multiple types of offending. Female perpetrators account for a small percentage of sexual assaults against children and differ from male offenders in several ways. Offenders use methods of “grooming” children to be victims. Effective investigation methods require knowing characteristics of sexual offenders. Comprehensive evaluations include interviews, record review, standardized instruments, sexual arousal testing, and actuarial risk assessment. Treatment methods include challenging and replacing faulty cognitions and unhealthy sexual behavior, aversive conditioning, and risk management. Research has not yet provided convincing evidence for treatment effectiveness. Some evidence supports a containment approach to managing sexual offenders in the community that utilizes multidisciplinary teams, polygraph testing, and other control mechanisms. Special attention is needed to the risk and consequences of sexual offending within faith communities. Other management methods are also used, including sex offender registration and notification, residence restrictions, GPS tracking, and civil commitment, but research evidence is often lacking and some methods can have unintended negative consequences. Recidivism rates depend on multiple factors and are likely to be underestimated since many offenses are not detected. Increased knowledge supported by more research will grow our power to prevent child sexual and respond with excellence when it does occur.
Ms. Jensen’s contribution to this chapter is adapted from her article “Understanding and Working with Adult Sex Offenders in the Church,” published in volume 45(3) of Currents in Mission and Theology (2018). The journal Currents in Mission and Theology has granted the author permission to reproduce portions of that article in this chapter.
This chapter was initially published with an incorrect copyright holder name. It has been corrected to © Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Cross, T.P., Vieth, V.I., Russell, A., Jensen, C.J. (2022). Adult Sex Offenders Against Children: Etiology, Typologies, Investigation, Treatment, Monitoring, and Recidivism. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89999-2_321
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