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Juvenile Sex Offenders Essay

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Treatment of Juvenile Sex Offenders Alexander Block Athens State University Dr. Janet Dorning Sexual abuse and offenses have been a problem in various places across the world. Among those who commit these crimes are juveniles, whose motives and actions are very different to adult sex offenders and as such are placed under special consideration. While most of the research has to do with adult offenders, I will be looking at the assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders. First and foremost, we must ask what exactly what is a juvenile sexual offense? According to Fehrenbach, Smith, Monastersky, & Deisher (1986), juvenile sexual offenses are defined as sexual contact or behavior which was either forced or coercive through …show more content…

“Juveniles are different from adult sex offenders and hold special characteristics regarding the sexual offense and recidivism” (Gill & Raphel, 2009). They tend to have fewer victims than adult offenders as well as being much less violent with them. Juveniles also do not experience the deviant fantasies that many adult offenders do, nor do they normally account for sexual predators or pedophilias. Problems tend to arise when trying to distinguish normal adolescent behavior from deviant sexual behavior as our laws have been tweaked to account for mostly adults regarding sexual offenses and as laws grow harsher and harsher for sex offenders, juveniles who are prosecuted are usually treated as adults regarding sexual abuse …show more content…

“Historically, juvenile sexual offenders have not been dealt with in an accountable manner. In many cases rapes have been minimized by a ‘boys-will-be-boys’ attitude, with token punishment and admonitions to behave.” (Ryan, Lane, Davis, & Isaac, 1987). Juveniles and adolescents who partook in these crimes were often labeled as experimenting or curious and that they were just adjusting to their sexuality. But with more and research into adult sex offenders came the realization that many of them had begun committing these sexual crimes in their earlier years and would go on to develop patterns of conditioned behavior and reinforcing

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Annotated bibliography Childress, S. (2016, June 2). More States Consider Raising the Age for Juvenile Crime. Retrieved from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/more-states-consider-raising-the-age-for-juvenile-crime/ More states are considering to raising the age for juvenile crimes before being tried as adult because young offender's mental capacity. The idea is to cut the cost of incarcerate young offender in adult prison and ensure offenders to receive proper education and specialized care to change their behavior. Putting children in adult prison does not deter crime.

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