Previous research has linked adult sex offending behavior to a multiplicity of variables, including juvenile delinquency and the experience of childhood abuse. The purpose of this study was to explore developmental pathways among childhood abuse, juvenile delinquency, and personality dimensions possibly conducive to adolescent sexual coercion. Using a retrospective self-report inventory, we measured the extent to which juvenile sexual offenders experienced childhood trauma, engaged in adolescent delinquency, and exhibited particular dispositions and cognitive biases. The effects of childhood and adolescent antecedents on sexualcoerciveness were then analyzed through simultaneous multiple regression pathanalyses. Results suggest that sexual compulsivity and hypermasculinity, throughmisogynistic fantasy behavior, significantly discriminate verbally and physicallycoercive juvenile offenders from those offenders who do not report using force in their offenses. Results also suggest that alcohol abuse may play a more salient role in the expression of coercive juvenile sexual coercion than previously hypothesized.
Awad, G.A., & Saunders, E.B. (1991). Male adolescent sexual assaulters: Clinical observations. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 6, 446-460.
2.
Byrne, D. (1977). Social psychology and the study of sexual behavior . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 3, 3-30.
3.
Caspi, A., Henry, B., McGee, R.O., Moffitt, T.E., & Silva, P.A. (1995). Temperamental origins of child and adolescent behavior problems: From age three to age fifteen. Child Development , 66, 55-68.
4.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin,112, 155-159.
5.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
6.
Davis, G.E., & Leitenberg, H. (1987). Adolescent sex offenders . Psychological Bulletin, 101, 417-427.
7.
Dunn, J. (1980). Individual differences in temperament. In M. Rutter (Ed.), Scientific foundations of developmental psychiatry (pp. 101- 109). London: Heinemann Medical.
8.
Fehrenbach, P.A., Smith, W., Monastersky, C., & Deisher, R.W. (1986). Adolescent sexual offenders: Offender and offense characteristics. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 225-233.
9.
Henry, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T.E., & Silva, P.A. (1996). Temperamental and familial predictors of violent and nonviolent criminal convictions: Age 3 to age 18. Developmental Psychology, 32, 614-623.
10.
Howell, D.C. (1997). Statistical methods for psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
11.
Keogh, B.K., & Pullis, M.E. (1980). Temperamental influences on the development of exceptional children. Advances in Special Education, 1, 239-276.
12.
Knight, R. (1995). A unified theory of sexual aggression. Paper presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, New Orleans, LA, Oct.
13.
Knight, R., & Prentky, R. (1990). Classifying sexual offenders: The development and corroboration of taxonomic models. In W. L. Marshall, D. R. Laws, & H. E. Barbaree (Eds.), Handbook of sexual assault (pp. 23-52). New York: Plenum Press.
14.
Knight, R., Prentky, R., & Cerce, D. (1994). The development, reliability, and validity of an inventory for the multidimensional assessment of sex and aggression. Criminal Justice and Behavior;21, 72-94.
15.
Langevin, R. (1983). Sexual strands: Understanding and treating sexual anomolies in men. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
Langevin, R., Paitich, D., & Russon, A.E. (1985). Are rapists sexually anomalous, aggressive or both? In R. Langevin (Ed.), Erotic preference, gender identity and aggression in men: New research studies . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum .
17.
Laws, D.R., & Marshall, W.L. (1990). A conditioning theory of the etiology and maintenance of deviant sexual preference and behavior . In W. L. Marshall, D. R. Laws, & H. E. Barbaree (Eds.), Handbook of sexual assault: Issues, theories, and treatment of the offender (pp. 209-229). New York: Plenum Press.
18.
Malamuth, N.M. (1986). Predictors of naturalistic sexual aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 953-962.
19.
Malamuth, N.M., Sockloskie, R.J., Koss, M.P., & Tanaka, J.S. (1991). Characteristics of aggressors against women: Testing a model using a national sample of college students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 670-681.
20.
Marshall, W.L., & Barbaree, H.E. (1990). An integrated theory of the etiology of sexual offending. In W. L. Marshall, D. R. Laws, & H. E. Barbaree (Eds.), Handbook of sexual assault: Issues, theories, and treatment of the offender (pp. 257-275). New York: Plenum Press.
21.
Marshall, W.L., Abel, G.G., & Quinsey, V.L. (1983). The assessment and treatment of sexual offenders . In S. Simon Jones (Ed.), Sexual aggression and the law (pp. 43-52). Burnaby, BC, Canada: Criminology Research Centre, Simon Fraser University .
22.
Meehl, P.E. (1979). A funny thing happened to us on the way to the latent entities. Journal of Personality Assessment, 43, 564-577.
23.
Patterson, G.R., Debaryshe, B.D., & Ramsey, E. (1989). A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior . American Psychologist, 44, 329-335.
24.
Prentky, R.A., & Knight, R.A. (1991). Identifying critical dimensions for discriminating among rapists. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 59, 643-66 1.
25.
Prentky, R.A., & Knight, R.A. (1993). Age of onset of sexual assault: Criminal and life history correlates. In G. C. Nagayama Hall , R. Hirschman, J. R. Graham, & M. S. Zaragoza (Eds.), Sexual aggression: Issues in etiology, assessment, and treatment (pp. 43-62). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
26.
Rada, R. (1976). Alcoholism and the child molestor. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences, 273, 492-496.
27.
Storms, M.D. (1981). A theory of erotic orientation development. Psychological Review, 88, 340-353.
28.
Vizard, E., Monck, E., & Misch, P. (1995). Child and adolescent sex abuse perpetrators: A review of the research literature. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 731-756.
29.
White, J.L., Moffitt, T.E., Caspi, A., Bartusch, D.J., Needles, D.J., & Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1994). Measuring impulsivity and examining its relationship to delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 192-205.
30.
Widom, C.S. (1988). Sampling biases and implications for child abuse research. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58, 260-270.
