Factors Associated with Delays of Days to Decades to Criminal Prosecutions of Child Sexual Abuse

Until the latter part of the 20th century, legal doctrines made it almost impossible to successfully prosecute in criminal court a case involving child sexual abuse (CSA), whether the complaint was timely or delayed. Many English-speaking countries have abrogated most formal legal barriers to prosecuting CSA cases, and courts are faced with the singular challenge of adjudicating sexual offenses against children that are reported to have happened years or decades earlier. We conducted analyses of 4,237 criminal complaints of CSA heard in Canadian criminal courts. There were several differences between timely and delayed prosecutions that led us to conclude that delayed prosecutions of CSA are common and due, in part, to the nature of the offense. Offense duration was associated with longer delays to prosecution. When the accused had access to the child through his position in the community, length of delay to prosecution was very long, particularly for male complainants. More research is needed on delayed CSA prosecutions, particularly given an apparent trend for jurisdictions to abolish barriers to criminal prosecutions of CSA that occurred years or decades earlier. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The seriousness of crime: A study of popular morality

This article reports the findings from a study that explored how lay people determine the seriousness of criminal offenses. While previous research on this topic has assumed that the perceived seriousness of crimes was primarily determined by differences in physical injury and economic loss, the results of this study indicate that offense seriousness is also affected by judgments subjects make about intent, motive, purpose, “fair play”, and “real harm”.     

The use of the MMPI special scales in the assessment of delinquent personality.

The MMPI was administered to 401 adjudicated male juvenile offenders, ages 13 to 17, who had been referred to a juvenile court mental health unit for recommendations in court disposition. Mean T scores generated by 86 MMPI clinical and supplementary scales were tabulated and analyzed as to their relationships with completed court offense histories. Twenty-eight of these scales that best described and discriminated between high and low levels of recidivism, crime severity, assault, and property offenses were identified, profiled, and discussed. Data were analyzed by a suggested T-score cutoff of 1.5 standard deviations, univariate, and multivariate (discriminant) analysis. Scales that best discriminated between high and low levels of recidivism and property offenses were Pd (Psychopathic Deviance), Ma1 (Amorality), Pd2 (Authority Problems), Re (Social Responsibility), and MAC (MacAndrew Alcoholism). Low scores on Re (Social Responsibility), Es (Ego Strength), Cn (Control), and St (Social Status) best discriminated between high and low levels of crime severity. High and low levels of assault were best differentiated by Ma3 (Imperturbability), Scale 5 (Masculinity-Femininity), and Pa2 (Poignancy). Although the linear combination of Scales F, 4, 8, and 9 has some utility in the areas of recidivism and property offenses, its discriminative ability is extremely poor for levels of assault and crime severity.     

Contextual Effects in Judgments of Crimes,Criminals, and the Purposes of Sentencing1

Content analyses of crime coverage in the news media (e.g., Graber, 1980) consistently demonstrate the overrepresentation of crimes of violence. It was hypothesized that in addition to direct effects upon members of the public (e.g., leading people to overestimate the number of violent crimes) this would also have several indirect effects. Reading about crimes of high seriousness might lead the public to (a) view other offenses more seriously, (b) regard other offenders more negatively, (c) punish other offenders more severely, and (d) emphasize the importance of retribution as a sentencing goal. Two experiments were conducted, using 90 members of the general public as subjects, to test these hypotheses. In Experiment I, subjects first read a news story about a crime that was of high, medium, or low seriousness. Later they rated an unrelated offender and offense more negatively, and were more punitive in their sentences, if the earlier offense had been very serious. There was equivocal support for the hypothesis that changes in punitiveness are caused by subjects shifting to a punishment-oriented sentencing strategy. Rather, it would appear that harsher penalties resulted from changes in perceptions of offense seriousness. These findings are discussed, as are future research directions.     

Victim and offender accounts of interpersonal conflict: autobiographical narratives of forgiveness and unforgiveness

Participants wrote 2 narratives that described an incident in which they angered or hurt someone (offender) or in which someone angered or hurt them (victim) and the offense was forgiven or not forgiven. Victims portrayed the offense as continuing (open), and offenders portrayed the offense as over (closed). Forgiveness narratives portrayed offenses as closed and with positive outcomes; however, for some victims, forgiveness coincided with continued anger, suggesting incomplete forgiveness. Dispositional empathy was associated with more benign interpretations of offenses, and situational empathy (e.g., for the offender) was associated with victims' forgiveness. In contrast, offenders' empathy for victims was associated with less self-forgiveness. Thus, both victim or offender role and forgiveness must be considered to understand narratives of interpersonal offenses.     

Too tired to take offense: When depletion promotes forgiveness

Although self-regulatory depletion has a broad range of adverse consequences, recent research has established that it can yield prosocial outcomes under certain circumstances. The present experiment examined the interaction between depletion and offense severity on forgiveness of romantic offenses. Consistent with prior research, results revealed that depleted (vs. non-depleted) individuals were less forgiving of severe offenses. In a counterintuitive reversal, however, depleted (vs. non-depleted) individuals were more forgiving of mild offenses. This crossover interaction effect was mediated by perception of offense severity, suggesting that depleted individuals may be especially forgiving of mild offenses because they are simply too tired to take offense at their partner's bad behavior. These findings identify one important instance in which depletion can promote salutary relationship processes.     

Examining changes in procedural justice and their influence on problem‐solving court outcomes

The number of problem‐solving courts has grown substantially since the mid‐1990s. Research consistently indicates that participation in these courts lowers recidivism, which is often attributed to defendants’ increased perceptions of procedural justice in these programs. Yet, prior studies are limited in their focus, often examining interactions with the judge in a single court or examining defendant perceptions and outcomes at a single time point. In the present study, we investigate defendant perceptions of procedural justice with judges and case managers across multiple problem‐solving courts over time. Findings indicate that procedural justice varies across court actors and over time. Procedural justice is lower among judges than among case managers; however, changes in perceptions of procedural justice with the judge are associated with improved court outcomes. We suggest that defendant perceptions are variable and complex but important in explaining variations in outcomes.     

Trait and Type Differences Among Male and Female Assaultive and Nonassaultive Offenders

Trait and type differences defined by MMPI scale scores and profiles, of offenders arrested for misdemeanor assaultive and nonassaultive offenses were investigated. The subjects were male and female offenders who were found guilty by the courts and serf to a clinic: for a dispositional evaluation, Only the Ma, Scale showed a significant difference between assaultive and nonassaultive male offenders. Assaultive female offenders were lower than nonassaultive females on the Hy and Mf Scales. in addition, the 4-3 MMPI profile had the smallest percentage of assaultive offenses while the 4-8 profile had the largest. The results do not support the existence of a single, clearly defined set of traits or profile type that is involved in an assaultive offense.     

Women accused of sex offenses: a gender-based comparison

Sexual offenses committed by women are likely underestimated and under-reported. This exploratory study compares and contrasts women accused of sexual offenses and their male counterparts. Data were retrospectively compiled on all alleged female and age-matched male sex offenders who were referred for psychiatric evaluation to a large Midwestern city's court psychiatric clinic over a six-year period. Data were abstracted regarding their crimes, charges, demographics, social history, medical history, legal history, violence history, substance use, sexual history, psychiatric history and their victims. Like the men, women were most frequently referred for sexual predator classification evaluations. Ages ranged from 19 to 62 years, and the majority had children. Most had prior arrests. One-third had a past history of psychiatric hospitalization, and most were given a non-paraphilic psychiatric diagnosis. The majority of the women reported past histories of sexual or physical victimization. While there were many similarities between female and male sex offenders in this psychiatric sample, women more frequently had victims of both genders.     

Defendant's Attractiveness as a Factor in the Outcome of Criminal Trials: An Observational Study1

Observers rated the physical attractiveness of 74 defendants in criminal court, covering a broad range of offenses. Seventy-three usable cases were obtained. For 67 defendants (excluding those who had drawn “flat sentences” of 99–199 years), attractiveness was predictive of both minimum and maximum sentences (p <.001)-the more attractive the defendant, the less severe the sentence imposed. No significant relationship was found between attractiveness and conviction/acquittal, although seriousness of the crime was found to correlate negatively with attractiveness (p <.01)). Race of the defendant showed a systematic relationship to punishment, with nonwhites drawing consistently more severe sentences than whites; a multiple regression analysis using attractiveness, race, and seriousness of crime as predictors of punishment yielded results which implied that this finding was largely due to a confounding of race and seriousness of the crime.     

Factors associated with juvenile detention truancy

Factors influencing truancy from a juvenile court treatment facility were investigated. Youth born in 1962 (N = 124) who were placed in the facility were compared for number of truancies, background, and personality variables. Results showed that males with prior adjudication for home or school truancy had a 65% probability of eloping from the court facility as compared to a 34% probability for youth adjudicated for other offenses. Most females were adjudicated for truancy offenses and showed a 62% probability of truancy while in the court facility. Further, for females who eloped and were returned, the probability of a subsequent truancy was above 80%. Personality characteristics of truants varied with sex: male truants were more likely to be conduct disordered youth for which impulsivity and disregard for social norms is prevalent; female truants appear more likely to be in conflict over autonomy issues.     

Violence in criminal careers: A review of the literature from a developmental life-course perspective

The criminal career paradigm focuses on the prevalence and frequency of crime along with an emphasis on offense specialization, age of onset and desistance, offense seriousness, and career length. Coinciding with the criminal career framework, developmental/life-course criminology offers more complex theoretical explanations for crime which highlight the importance of age-graded developmental risk factors that affect offending over the course of a criminal career. This review provides a systematic examination of the role of violence in criminal career and developmental/life-course research with a specific focus on its prevalence and frequency and its share of the offense repertoire. The results show that the incidence of violence is rare in one's criminal career except for a small group of chronic offenders who are responsible for a majority of the violent offenses. Regarding specialization, evidence suggests that offenders are spectacularly non-specialized and violent offenders can primarily be characterized as frequent offenders who offend more often and thereby have a higher probability of committing a violent offense in their criminal career. Conclusions and directions for future research are discussed.     

The Failure of the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification in Cross‐Gender Prison Guard Cases: A Problem beyond Equal Employment Opportunity

Knowing the theory of gender that a court is using to understand and assess the issues in a case is vital to ensuring that women are afforded their full rights under the law. Unfortunately, courts often do not explicitly state what understanding of gender is informing their decisions. An exception is found in employment law: specifically, the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) exception to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which allows employers to engage in sex‐based discrimination in those instances in which the sex of the employee is a reasonably necessary qualification for the job. In these cases, because the court must analyze how “manness” or “womanness” impacts one's qualification to hold certain kinds of employment, the court must articulate its understanding of gender. This paper examines two BFOQ cases in the cross‐gender prison guard context, those cases in which an individual of one sex seeks to guard inmates of the opposite sex. In these cases the courts created a theory of gender that posits men and women as different in kind. The theory developed in this line of cases is an attack on Title VII protections and a potential barrier to women's equality under the law.     

A study of sexual offenses against females.

The objective of this study was to obtain information on sexual offenses against females. Data were obtained from 103 females in two university classes. Eighty-four percent reported having been the victim of a sexual offense. The offenses experienced were obscene telephone calls (61%), sexual molestation (44%), exhibitionism (27%), being followed (24%), attempted rape (16%) and rape (1%). Most offenses were discussed with friends while very few were reported to parents, police or social workers.     

A longitudinal examination of sex offender recidivism prior to and following the implementation of SORN

The goals of the present study were to examine the recidivism rates of two matched samples of sexual offenders, those released prior to and after sex offender registration and notification (SORN) in New Jersey. The pre-SORN group (1990-1994) included 247 offenders, while the post-SORN group (1996-2000) included 248 offenders. The longitudinal analysis demonstrated that for sex offenders released from prison both prior to and after implementation of SORN, there are clearly two distinguishable groups of sex offenders in relation to patterns of recidivism. More than three-quarters of sex offenders were identified as at low risk of recidivism, with low rates of repeat criminal offenses. By contrast, the high-risk group of offenders was not only more likely to commit future criminal offenses, including sex offenses, but they were also more likely to commit significantly more offenses and to do so fairly quickly following release. Analyses also include an examination of the influence of demographics, substance abuse and mental health issues, treatment history, sex offense incident characteristics, and criminal history on recidivism. Finally, SORN status was not a significant predictor of sex or general recidivism. The study limitations and policy implications are discussed.     

Jugendliche Sexualstraftäter: Spezialfälle der Prognoseerstellung?

This study compared a sample of 273 juvenile (aged 14 to under 18), 178 adolescent (aged 18 to under 21) and 273 adult (older than 20 years) male sex offenders modus operandi (or MO, the way in which they committed their offenses), frequency of recidivism and predicted recidivism via the static-99. In terms of the frequencies of the MO aspects we found that juveniles and adolescents differed significantly from adult sexual offenders. However, concerning the frequency of sexual violent behaviors, adolescents committed more severe offenses in contrast to the two other groups. The comparison of recidivism rates indicated that adolescent sexual offenders were significantly less likely to commit a new sexual offense, but were considerably more likely to commit a non-sexual violent offense compared to adult sexual offenders. For juvenile offenders, only few static-99 variables were predictive of future recidivism in comparison to the other groups, suggesting that the static-99 may only have a restricted utility in juvenile offenders. Further, juvenile offenders risk levels were found to fall primarily within the medium risk group making individual differentiation of potential risk difficult. It is suggested that additional predictors, which help to differentiate young sexual offenders must be investigated.     

Families in court: will a family court do it better?

Family-related case filings in the civil courts, including juvenile matters, exceed 7,000,000 filings annually. These cases typically are handled in several different trial courts. Reform proposals would create a unified family court, with broad jurisdiction over child and family matters. Family court proponents anticipate benefits of greater judicial continuity with a family, better informed jurists and judicial decisions, more client comfort, and better coordinated intervention services. This article reviews present court handling of family-related cases and proceeds to describe family court developments in the states. It then presents each of the potential benefits, discussing the problems they're intended to overcome and the approaches courts are using or might use to achieve these benefits. The author supports the family court direction, while recognizing the paucity of family court evaluation. More assessment is encouraged. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Criminally Involved Parents Who Misuse Substances and Children’s Odds of Being Arrested as a Young Adult: Do Drug Treatment Courts Mitigate the Risk?

This paper examined (1) the association between parents who are convicted of a substance-related offense and their children’s probability of being arrested as a young adult and (2) whether or not parental participation in an adult drug treatment court program mitigated this risk. The analysis relied on state administrative data from North Carolina courts (2005–2013) and from birth records (1988–2003). The dependent variable was the probability that a child was arrested as a young adult (16–21). Logistic regression was used to compare groups and models accounted for the clustering of multiple children with the same mother. Findings revealed that children whose parents were convicted on either a substance-related charge on a non-substance-related charge had twice the odds of being arrested as young adult, relative to children whose parents had not been observed having a conviction. While a quarter of children whose parents participated in a drug treatment court program were arrested as young adults, parental completion this program did not reduce this risk. In conclusion, children whose parents were convicted had an increased risk of being arrested as young adults, irrespective of whether or not the conviction was on a substance-related charge. However, drug treatment courts did not reduce this risk. Reducing intergenerational links in the probability of arrest remains a societal challenge.     

The Buddy System:

This study presents the effect of the Buddy System on arrests for major criminal offenses over a three year period for each of 553 younsters (334 project and 218). The findings support earlier results which were based on only the project year, in that fewer experimental juveniles, who had been arrested in the year before participating in the project, were arrested within three years after entering the Buddy System. Once again, the arrest rate of those who had not been arrested in the prior year was higher in the experimental condition. In addition, the negative effect occured largely with those who spent more than one year in the Buddy System. These results, combined with an analysis of the base rate of arrests provided by the control condition (which showed variation from 10.8 to 81%, depending on sex and offense history), indicated that delinquency programs should focus on yougsters with a recent history of arrests for major criminal offenses, and that the base rates of the target population should be considered in the implementation and evaluation of a prgram.     

The admissibility of other specified paraphilic disorder (non-consent) in sexually violent predator proceedings

Following the advent of sexually violent predator (SVP) legislation in the early 1990s, forensic evaluators began to apply diagnostic labels related to a paraphilic interest in rape as a mental condition predisposing individuals convicted of sexual offenses to recidivate. The most recent iteration of the concept, other specified paraphilic disorder (non-consent) (OSPD (non-consent)), is a commonly utilized diagnostic entity in SVP proceedings. Research on paraphilic interest in coercive sex has failed to define a valid methodology or set of criteria to make a diagnosis of OSPD (non-consent) and has repeatedly demonstrated that the diagnostic construct has poor interrater reliability. The state of the science pertaining to OSPD (non-consent) thus raises serious concerns regarding its admissibility in SVP proceedings. Indeed, there are recent cases in which courts have deemed it inadmissible. The forensic expert involved in SVP proceedings should understand admissibility concerns related to OSPD (non-consent) and how to address them in court.