Life routinization and clandestine photo-taking behavior among young people in Hong Kong: Implications for social work practice

With a growing number of reported offenses, clandestine photo-taking has become an increasingly noticeable phenomenon in Hong Kong and other parts of the world. This behavior is usually seen as a selfish act as it invades people’s privacy and sexual autonomy to satisfy one’s own sex drive. However, the present study provides new and varying insights into the problem. This is the qualitative section of an impact assessment including three focus group interviews with 10 young sexual offenders aged between 18 and 25 years who were either arrested or under probation. The results suggest that more than being sexually driven, people engaged in clandestine photo-taking to eliminate their sense of loneliness and break through the routinization of their everyday lifestyle. Living in a fast-paced and highly demanding metropolitan city, they felt lost and occupied to the extent that they were unaware of their purpose and meaning in life. In contrast, clandestine photo-taking allowed them to have a sense of control and satisfaction that they were lacking in their everyday lives. Based on the young offenders’ experiences and responses in the present study, social and parental understanding with early and preventive measures such as curriculum-based sexual education, and sufficient sexual and counseling support will be more important than imposing strong legal sanctions or social control to handle their sexually offending behavior. To assist young people in their need to overcome their everyday life’s boredom, stress, and routine, in combination with existing treatments, a meaning-centered approach is suggested for future practices.

Reconsidering Reconciliation Within Families of Youth Who Sexually Offend

Research on youth sexual offending has focused primarily on its prevalence, risk factors, treatment interventions, and recidivism rates. Thus, there is a need to develop better understandings of the processes towards reconciliation (or the lack thereof) that occur in the context of the collateral consequences of such harm-generating behavior. This qualitative study presents parents’ perspectives on the benefits and challenges associated with the implications and outcomes of reconciliation, and of its deprivation among sexually offending youth, victims and their relatives. We analysed in-depth, semi-structured interview data among 16 parents from 10 families in Canada using thematic coding procedures. The findings reveal that in the absence of reconciliation, both relationship repair and rehabilitation are hindered by miscommunication, bitterness, and confusion. By contrast, when meaningful reconciliation occurs, offending youth are better able to take responsibility for their actions, which in many cases led to victim validation and relationship restoration among all affected parties, including immediate and extended relatives. Our research points to the importance of restorative practices in both formal and informal attempts towards accountability, reconciliation, rehabilitation, victim redress, as well as family and community reintegration.

A Former Crown’s Vision for Empowering Survivors of Sexual Violence

Our method for combatting sexual violence in Canada is failing. Survivors of sexual violence have lost confidence in the criminal justice system as evidenced by the extremely low reporting rate to the police. While victims generally wish to hold perpetrators accountable, their reluctance to engage the criminal justice system is a clear indication that the cost (psychologically and emotionally) is too high. Survivors need more protection from re-traumatization and something must change in order to hold perpetrators accountable and deter sexual violence. In this article I propose a fully funded confidential trauma-informed model of victim representation for survivors of sexual violence to better protect their rights and facilitate equal access to justice. I find support for my proposed model by looking to systems of victim representation internationally, in the U.S. Military and in the International Criminal Court. Studies of these models demonstrate that they more meaningfully engage victims with the justice system and mitigate harm in various ways. I also demonstrate why the criticisms of these models are unwarranted. Finally I provide an analysis regarding equality rights under the Canadian Charter and outline why our current process is discriminatory and undermines the equality of women. I conclude that allowing legal representation offers overwhelming value and empowerment to survivors of sexual violence by improving their protection from harm and increasing their access to justice. I further postulate that providing this support to survivors could increase the reporting rate for sexual violence and thereby contribute to reducing the rate of sexually offending with impunity.

Noncompleted Sexual Offenses: Internal States, Risks and Difficulties Related to Crime Commission through the Lens of Sexual Offenders

The study aims to generate insights from sexual offenders on the influence of internal states and how they perceive risks of apprehension and difficulties in the context of noncompleted sexual offenses, that is when offenders initiated the offense but were stopped or discouraged either before or during sexual contact. Adult males incarcerated for sexually offending completed a self-report questionnaire. Regression models, including interaction effects, were estimated. Two interaction effects were found providing insights into which and how internal states, such as intoxication to alcohol, may influence perceived difficulties related to crime. Future research should promote the investigation of noncompleted sexual offenses, which could provide a real opportunity to generate new or complementary insights for better understanding and guiding prevention initiatives.

Let Him Who Is without Sin Cast the First Stone: Religious Struggle among Persons Convicted of Sexually Offending

Religiousness and spirituality have been identified as important factors in promoting desistance from sexual offending and as helpful coping resources with negative psychological consequences related to public registration. However, the potential mental health benefits, and detriments, of religiousness and spirituality for persons convicted of sexually offending have not been widely examined. Given the moral implications of their behavior and stigmatization by society, including from religious and spiritual communities, this study aimed to examine levels of religious struggle and their associations with symptoms of mental health among 30 men on the Maryland Sex Offense Registry. Relative to the normative sample, the mean level of spiritual transcendence, constructive perceptions of spirituality that develop within social, cultural, and educational contexts, was significantly lower within this sample. Conversely, religious struggle mean scores indicated that the men in this sample experienced significantly greater difficulties relative to God and their faith community. Greater levels of religious struggle were significantly related to higher neuroticism, greater self-reported shame, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, as well as lower levels of self-compassion. Based on these preliminary findings, religious struggles may adversely influence the mental health of persons convicted of sexually offending. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the associations between religiousness, spirituality, and mental health in this population. Future directions for research and clinical implications for mental health providers, including spiritually informed treatment approaches with persons convicted of sexually offending, are discussed.

Parks, Playgrounds, and Incidents of Sexual Assault

In the United States, certain laws restrict those convicted of sexually offending from accessing social spaces where youth congregate such as parks and playgrounds. However, empirical work to date has rarely described sexual assaults in these locations or tested the assumptions of these laws explicitly. To address these gaps in the literature, we drew on the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to analyze offender, victim, and crime characteristics of sexual assaults that occurred at parks and playgrounds over a 5-year period (2010-2015). Estimated via multivariate logistic regression, results showed support for these law’s assumptions when analyzing this particular location. However, stranger perpetrators were significantly more likely to sexually assault adult victims versus youth victims. Several other offense features distinguished youth versus adult victim sexual assault incidents at parks and playgrounds, such as the offender age, the use of force, and the injuries sustained by the victim. Collectively, these findings both support and challenge these types of social space restriction laws.

Identifying Criminogenic Needs Using the Personality Assessment Inventory With Males Who Have Sexually Offended

The present study investigated the relationships between the scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and variables relevant to recidivism risk and criminogenic need to inform clinicians’ use of the PAI for purposes of treatment planning and risk management. PAI profiles, risk measure and domain scores, and recidivism data were collected for 158 males who have been convicted of sexually offending. Data were analyzed to investigate whether select clinical scales of the PAI correlated with conceptually relevant domains of risk and/or recidivism. Our findings demonstrated that the antisocial scales were consistently associated with risk constructs and recidivism, while very few clinical and personality scales showed relationships with risk constructs. The PAI seems to include select scales that represent risk-related needs, but also, other scales that may be more related to responsivity issues, and therefore may have utility to address two of the risk, need, and responsivity principles.

Childhood Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Adjudicated for Sexual Offenses: Mental Health Consequences and Sexual Offending Behaviors

Most studies on the mental health consequences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) focus predominantly on CSA survivors who do not commit sexual offenses. The current study examined the effects of CSA on 498 male adolescents adjudicated for sexual offenses who represent the small portion of CSA survivors who engage in sexual offenses. The prevalence of internalizing symptoms, parental attachment difficulties, specific sexual offending behaviors, and risk for sexually offending were compared among participants with and without a history of CSA. Results indicated that participants with a history of CSA were more likely to be diagnosed with major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder than those who did not report a history of CSA. A history of CSA was also positively correlated with risk for sexually offending and with specific offense patterns and consensual sexual behaviors. No significant differences emerged on parental attachment difficulties. These results highlight that adolescents adjudicated for sexual offenses with a history of CSA present with differences in sexual and psychological functioning as well as markedly different offending patterns when compared with those without a CSA history. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.