CENTER FOR SEX OFFENDER MANAGEMENT
The Effective Management of Juvenile Sex Offenders in the Community
A Training Curriculum

 A Project of the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice

 

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Section 1: Introduction
1 Hour

TOPIC: INTRODUCTION

This curriculum is intended to provide a wide variety of practitioners—including supervision officers, treatment providers, victim advocates, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement officials, and others among you who work with juvenile sex offenders—with an overview of important components related to the effective management of these youth in the community.

As a framework for the training, we will consider these components through the lens of what has been termed “The Comprehensive Approach to Sex Offender Management,”¹ which includes the assessment process, specialized treatment approaches, supervision strategies, reentry considerations, and legislative trends such as registration and community notification.

We will also approach these various components from a developmental perspective, recognizing that youth who commit sex offenses are not simply “little adults.” As such, the intent of this training curriculum is to help you to understand what we know about these youth—including some of the key differences between adult and juvenile sex offenders—and what the implications are for how we can most effectively assess, treat, supervise, and otherwise manage them, all with a goal of ensuring that these youth can be successful, healthy, and productive contributors to the community. Successful youth translates into safer communities.

Note to Trainers: While addressing the issue of very young children with sexual behavior problems is beyond the scope of this training, please refer to the handout Recommended Readings for Information about Young Children with Sexual Behavior Problems for more information.

To make sure that we are all on the same page about the youth we will be talking about in this curriculum, I want to outline a few key points:

• First, we are focusing on adolescents, generally between the ages of 12 and 17. Some young children have sexual behavior problems as well, but they are a special population in and of themselves, and the information we’ll be covering about juvenile sex offenders is not applicable to them.
• In addition, although we know that females engage in sexually abusive behavior, the majority of juvenile sex offenders appear to be male. As such, most of the research and professional literature on juvenile sex offenders has been written about adolescent males. With a few exceptions, this training will be focused on the adolescent male sex offender.
• Finally, we recognize that many youth who come to our attention for engaging in problem sexual behaviors may never be processed in the juvenile court system. Rather, they may be referred for services by school personnel or social services agencies, or we may become aware of them through the course of a maltreatment or family services case—or because they have been deemed to be a child in need of services—rather than through a delinquency route. Some of what we will cover in this training may have applicability for these youth, but for the most part, the information we will be presenting is designed for youth who have been referred to and already adjudicated by the juvenile courts.
  

Goals

Consistent with the overall framework, then, the goals of this training curriculum are to provide an overview of:

• What is meant by a “comprehensive approach” to managing juvenile sex offenders in the community;
• What is known about the incidence and prevalence of sexual offending by juveniles;
• The key differences between adult and juvenile sex offenders and the implications those differences have on how to most effectively manage these youth;
• The ways in which specialized—and developmentally appropriate—assessments can enhance and inform decisionmaking throughout the system;
• Promising approaches to treatment for juvenile sex offenders, and how they differ from treatment for adults;
• The goals and elements of a success–focused strategy for supervising juvenile sex offenders in the community;
• Specific ways in which professionals can facilitate successful community reintegration and stability of these youth in the community; and
• The potential implications of various legislative responses originally designed for adult sex offenders that have in some cases been applied to youth.

In order to attain these goals, this training curriculum is organized into the following sections:

• Introduction: We will begin with a brief overview of the elements of a comprehensive approach to managing sex offenders and the underlying philosophies that drive this approach.
• Overview: We will “get to know” these youth by highlighting national statistics, outlining current research and literature about characteristics and potential subtypes, and understanding trends in how the juvenile justice system has responded to these youth.
• Assessment: We will address the importance of specialized and ongoing assessments as a critical piece of effectively managing juvenile sex offenders in the community; important elements that should be considered in these assessments, including risk factors that may increase the likelihood of reoffense; and the kinds of juvenile–specific assessment tools are available to help guide decisionmaking.
• Supervision: We will discuss how community safety can be enhanced by a balanced supervision philosophy that supports accountability and rehabilitation, and that promotes the success of youth; explore the importance of specialized training, caseloads, and supervision conditions; address aspects of case planning and management; and highlight some promising supervision strategies specifically for use with a juvenile sex offender population.
• Treatment: We will summarize what is happening commonly in juvenile sex offender treatment programs around the country; discuss the types of interventions that seem to have the most promise in reducing recidivism; highlight some of the current controversies in the field; and discuss the available treatment outcome data.
• Reentry: We will talk about the seemingly unbalanced placement of youthful sex offenders in residential or institutional facilities; common challenges and potential solutions related to their transition and reentry back into the community following such a placement; and consider the various elements of a comprehensive reentry and aftercare plan.
• The Legal and Legislative Response : We will highlight some of the legal trends and changes that have occurred in recent decades; the application of federal registration and community notification laws to juvenile sex offenders; the enactment of sexually violent predator/civil commitment laws—some of which apply to juvenile offenders; and some of the important concerns and questions that have been raised when these laws are applied to youth in the same manner in which they are applied to adult sex offenders.

Note to Trainers: It is important to allow time for introductions in order to set a tone for the training that will emphasize and encourage participation and interaction. It is also an opportunity for the trainer to develop a sense of the group’s level of knowledge and experience, if that was not accomplished prior to the training event. In a large group, participant introductions could be made around individual training tables. If the group is smaller, introductions of all participants to the whole group would be appropriate.

Before we launch into our substantive discussions, let’s take some time to get acquainted with one another and to learn a little bit about the work that each of us does every day.