This article describes a focus group study exploring university students' perspectives of sexual violence prevention campaigns with the goal of developing a social marketing campaign that would resonate with university students. Seventy-one students at one university in Aotearoa/New Zealand provided feedback in 15 focus groups. Findings of an…

This study examines victim, offender, and offence characteristics associated with sexual assaults by strangers of older women compared to those against younger women. Cases are obtained from the Serious Crime Analysis Section of the United Kingdom National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA; formerly Centrex). All possible cases of rape, attempted…

To examine the predictive accuracy of four well established risk assessment instruments (PCL-R, HCR-20, SVR-20, and Static-99) in an important subgroup of sexual offenders, these instruments were assessed retrospectively based on information from forensic psychiatric court reports in a sample of 90 released male sexual homicide offenders (out of…

The Severe Sexual Sadism Scale (SSSS) is a screening device for the file-based assessment of forensically relevant sexual sadism. The SSSS consists of 11 dichotomous (yes/no) items that code behavioral indicators of severe sexual sadism within sexual offenses. Based on an Austrian sample of 105 sexual offenders, the present study replicated the…

Background: Intellectually disabled offenders may have different characteristics than offenders with average intellectual functioning. We therefore compared pre-trial reported defendants with an IQ score =70, 71-84 and =85 points. Methods: Nationwide database of pre-trial psychiatric reports requested by Dutch courts between 2000 and 2006 with a…

This review compared the accuracy of various approaches to the prediction of recidivism among sexual offenders. On the basis of a meta-analysis of 536 findings drawn from 118 distinct samples (45,398 sexual offenders, 16 countries), empirically derived actuarial measures were more accurate than unstructured professional judgment for all outcomes…

This paper outlines the key findings from a recent study of statutory service responses to young people with learning disabilities who show sexually inappropriate or abusive behaviours, with a particular focus on the involvement of criminal justice agencies. The study found that although inappropriate sexual behaviours were commonplace in special…

Presents psychoanalytic view based on author's 21 years of experience as an expert witness for approximately 750 individuals who committed sex crimes, and on author's clinical psychiatric experience in treating 170 sex offenders released from prison. Describes treatment program theoretically based on these experiences. (Author/NB)

In sample of 30 consecutively admitted sex offenders at treatment facility inside Austrian prison system, found 23 patients with diagnosis of personality disorder. Distribution of diagnoses did not differ significantly from other samples found in general outpatient clinic with exception of relatively high rate of sadistic personality disorder…

Investigated sensitivity/specificity of phallometric test for pedophilia and hebephilia. Total samples were 154 men accused of sexual offenses against minors and 56 men accused of sexual offenses against adult women. Concluded that sensitivity of test in detecting pedophilia or hebephilia in complete nonadmitters is probably greater than or equal…

A qualitative analysis of interview data with 41 rapists determined that five implicit theories (ITs) underlie rapists' offense supportive beliefs/feelings/motives: (a) dangerous world (DW)--where men have feelings of generalized anger and/or resentment toward others; (b) women are dangerous--where men hold a set of attitudes that are hostile…

Research was undertaken on the criminal careers of a large group of juvenile sexual and non-sexual offenders (of violence and property) in the Netherlands. Data from police records over a 6-year period from 1996 to 2002 were analysed. Results show that, with the exception of those in the exhibitionist subgroup, young sexual offenders start their…

Reviews methods of treatment used with sex offenders, each based on the erroneous belief that sex offenders constitute a relatively homogeneous taxonomic class. Asserts that sex offenders are people with a sad personal history, in which their deviant sexual behavior represents an effort to banish the pain they experienced during their developing…

The aim of the current study was to reveal attitudes towards child sexual abuse and investigate predictors of such attitudes. A random sample of the Norwegian adult population (n = 296), active Christians (n = 125) and prisoners convicted of child sexual abuse (n = 36) were included in the study. The results show that women were more negative…