CH 4 - Why Sexual Offending?

Early Hypothesis (1840 -1930)

• sexual degenerates

• offender is born with proclivity for abnormal sexual behavior

• focus on physical features of offender

  • Lombroso

First Generation (1940 - 1970)

• sex offending thought of as a mental disorder

• role of deviant sexual interests/fantasies

• sex drive as a component of offending

• negative familial experiences

• influence of early victimization

Second Generation (1980 - 1990)

• focuses on prevalence of sexual offending

• sexual offending influenced by underlying trait/disposition

  • latent factors: antisocial behaviors

• sexual offending influenced by distorted beliefs about women and sexuality

• societal factors and inadequate learning

• influence of pornography

  • rise in non-contact offenses

Third Generation (1990 - 2010)

• explaining sexual behavior over time

• static, fixed, and dynamic risk factors impact sexual offending

• life stressor leading to sexual offending

• negative life events trigger sexual offending

• sex and an inappropriate coping mechanism

• deviant sexual fantasies play a role

Fourth Generation (2010 -)

• focus on life course patterns

• developmental and life course risk and protective factors

• age-graded risk and protective factors

• presence of multiple developmental trajectories

• integrated biopsychosocial perspective

What motivates a sexual offender?

it’s complex

• immediate sexual gratification

• acting out sexual fantasies

• taking advantage of a situation/vulnerable person

• thrill seeking

• long-lasting hostility toward women/people in general

• achieving power/control

• need to feel masculine

• need for intimacy

• need to hurt someone in order to recieve sexual pleasure

sexual and non-sexual motives

Innate Propensity - Sociobiology and Evolutionary Theories

• survival of one’s genes

• high levels of testosterone (though not empirically proven)

Socially Acquired Predispostion

• role of the environment

• sociocultural theories

  • socially learned behaviors

    • patriarchal culture promotes

      • gender inequality

      • objectification of women

      • early sexualization of children

    • media

    • pornography

    • rape culture

General Propensity

a sex offender has the same propensity to commit a sex crime/another crime type as any other offender

• because they share the same latent construct — antisocial tendencies/behaviors

Specific Propensity

there is something innately different about sex offenders compared to other types of offenders

• sexual deviance