Juvenile Sex Offenders

Class 21

Last Class

• Why not a Specialized Juvenile Court for sex offenders?

Four Issues

• Definitions– Sex Offenders and the Conundrum of Adolescence

• Determinism– Assumptions of Inevitability and Stability of Sex

Offending

• Legal Reactions– Punishment– Beyond Punishment

• Imagining Alternatives– Legal and Social Policy

Behavioral Considerations in Defining Sex Offenders

• “Age appropriateness” considerations • Heuristic Categories

– Non-contact sexual behaviors– Experimentation– Coercion– Violence

• Similar explanations?– Co-morbidity of other mental health conditions– Behavioral co-morbidity

Determinism• Twin Issues motivating laws

– Inevitability of subsequent offending (prediction problem)

– Inevitability of treatment failure– Recidivism of treatment participants over age-graded

base rate of re-offending• Do improvements in the prediction of violence

translate into better predictions of sex offending – For adults?– For juveniles?

• Data– 7-13% recidivism rates over 5 years, compared to

50% for other offenses

• Problems and Issues with Treatment – What are we treating?

• Heterogeneity of causal paths• Co-morbid mental health conditions• Co-morbid sexual deviance• Immaturity dimensions

– Social judgment, risk taking, thrill seeking, impulsivity

– How are we treating it?• Addiction models• Behaviorist models• Psychogenic models

Source: Lisa L. Sample and Timothy M. Bray, Are Sex Offenders Dangerous? 3 Criminology and Public Policy 59-82 (2003).

Legal Reactions

• Jurisdictional Boundary – preference for waiver for more serious cases

• Punishment– Contradiction of jurisdictional transfer and

therapeutic regime -- Waiver has its own effects that complicate treatment

– Limitations on correctional treatment of juvenile sex offenders in adult correctional placements

• Beyond Punishment– Civil Commitment

• Prediction problems are reified into inevitability by statute and case law

• Hendricks, Crane – commitment limited to those who are “violent” or dangerous

– Registration and Notification• Thresholds to mandate registration• Methods of notification• Adolescent-specific jurisprudence (Ohio)

– Offenses – broader or narrower than for adults?– Different risk thresholds, 3 tiers– Different procedures for notification at each tier– Limitations of registration at each tier

• Notification and the Stigma Avoidance Prong of the Juvenile Court – Defeated by notification?

• Ring Issues– Evidentiary hearing to determine recidivism

risk

Alternatives

• Bankruptcy Model– Non-criminal– Leveraging power of the court

• Greater authority to respond to supply of services

• Mutual accountability between court, service providers, and offender – Inherently democratic