What makes a teenage sex offender?

Some researchers think that adolescent sex offenders commit crimes because they lack the social skills to form more conventional relationships and therapies for them often concentrate on providing such skills. However, a review of the research by Michael Seto of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and Martin Lalumiere of the University of Lethbridge in Alberta has questioned this view. The researchers looked at 59 independent studies comparing a total of 3,855 male adolescent sex offenders with 13,393 non-offending children. The study found that there was no difference in social competence or social skills between the two groups. The researchers also found that there was no evidence to support connections between family problems, parent-child relationships and attitudes and beliefs about women, and sex offending. Instead having atypical sexual interests such as desiring young children, wanting to rape people or to expose oneself to them were more closely linked with sex offending as were being sexually abused themselves, being exposed to sexual violence in their families and experiencing early exposure to sex or pornography.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the link in the title of this post.