Sexuality and Autistic-Like Symptoms in Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Follow-Up After 8 Years

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, May 2016

Juveniles who have committed a sexual offense (JSOs) are thought to have abnormal sexual development, as well as increased ASD symptoms. In the current study, sexual development and behavior, as well as stability of ASD-like symptoms were assessed in a sample of 44 male JSOs (mean age 24.7 ± 1.5 years) 8 years after their sexual offence. JSOs exhibited less knowledge of sexuality, less positive attitudes towards pornography and more often reported having been a victim of verbal sexual intimidation than a matched normal population sample. ASD symptoms were relatively stable over the 8 years follow-up, indicating that social difficulties in JSOs may be part of life-long autistic-like traits. However, ASD symptoms were not related to alterations in sexual development or behavior.

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Sexuality and Autistic-Like Symptoms in Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Follow-Up After 8 Years

J Autism Dev Disord Sexuality and Autistic-Like Symptoms in Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Follow-Up After 8 Years M. Ewoud Baarsma 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cyril Boonmann 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lisette A. 't Hart-Kerkhoffs 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hanneke de Graaf 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Theo A. H. Doreleijers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Robert R. J. M. Vermeiren 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lucres M. C. Jansen 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 Research and Documentation Center, Ministry of Security and Justice , The Hague , The Netherlands 1 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands 2 & Lucres M. C. Jansen 3 Curium-LUMC, Leiden University Medical Center , Leiden , The Netherlands 4 Institute for Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law, Leiden University , Leiden , The Netherlands 5 Rutgers , Utrecht , The Netherlands 6 Department of Forensic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Basel Psychiatric Hospital , Basel , Switzerland Juveniles who have committed a sexual offense (JSOs) are thought to have abnormal sexual development, as well as increased ASD symptoms. In the current study, sexual development and behavior, as well as stability of ASD-like symptoms were assessed in a sample of 44 male JSOs (mean age 24.7 ± 1.5 years) 8 years after their sexual offence. JSOs exhibited less knowledge of sexuality, less positive attitudes towards pornography and more often reported having been a victim of verbal sexual intimidation than a matched normal population sample. ASD symptoms were relatively stable over the 8 years follow-up, indicating that social difficulties in JSOs may be part of life-long autistic-like traits. However, ASD symptoms were not related to alterations in sexual development or behavior. Sexual offending juveniles; Autism spectrum disorder; Sexual development; Longitudinal research Introduction Sexual offending is an umbrella term, covering an array of criminal behaviors, ranging from hands-on offenses such as rape and sexual assault, to hands-off offenses such as public indecency and possession of child pornography. It is, as such, a societal problem, not only in terms of the trauma it causes its victims, but also in terms of the costs society bears, for example for prosecuting and punishing offenders (Dunsieth Jr. et al. 2004) . It is suggested that a significant subgroup of sexual offenders starts their deviant sexual behavior in adolescence (Longo and Groth 1983) , and approximately 20 % of all rapes and 20–50 % of child abuse cases are perpetrated by minors (Barbaree and Marshall 2008) . Fortunately, not all juveniles who have committed a sexual offense (JSOs) will continue to do so in adulthood and several studies have found sexual re-offending by JSOs to be relatively rare (Caldwell 2010; Fortune and Lambie 2006) . A previous study in the same group of participants by ’t Hart-Kerkhoffs et al. (2015), for example, found a sexual recidivism rate of 7 %, compared to a rate of 80 % for non-sexual recidivism. One possible explanation for this low sexual recidivism rate is that JSOs as a group may not differ from the general population with respect to psychosexual development. Previous studies have assessed some sexual domains in JSOs, such as the number of partners or deviant sexual urges (e.g., Driemeyer et al. 2013), but the sexual development of JSOs has not yet been comprehensively studied. Besides psychosexual problems, a possible contributing factor to sexually offensive behavior in these minors is the presence of social impairments, as is frequently seen in individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A previous study by ’t Hart-Kerkhoffs et al. (2009b) screened JSOs for the symptoms of an ASD using a parent-report questionnaire and found that JSOs display significantly more symptoms of ASDs than healthy controls. This is, however, to the best of our knowledge, the only cohort study that has assessed ASD symptoms in JSOs. Since it was cross-sectional in design, it is currently unknown whether observed ASD symptoms persist into adulthood. If autistic-like traits in adolescent JSOs are indeed based on an autism spectrum disorder, we would expect to see these traits persist into adulthood, since ASDs are currently understood to be life-long conditions (Matson and Horovitz 2010) . Furthermore, previous research has also demonstrated that some individuals with an ASD may experience difficulties in their sexual behavior and development (Dewinter et al. 2013; Stokes et al. 2007) . In JSOs, however, the relationship between ASD symptoms and sexual behavior is not yet clear. Therefore, the current study investigates the development of sexuality and ASD symptoms in JSOs from adolescence to early adulthood, as well as the relationship between these characteristics. The foundation for a healthy sexuality in adulthood lies in childhood and adolescence, with the discovery of one’s own sexuality oftentimes going in phases (De Graaf et al. (...truncated)


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M. Ewoud Baarsma, Cyril Boonmann, Lisette A. ’t Hart-Kerkhoffs, Hanneke de Graaf, Theo A. H. Doreleijers, Robert R. J. M. Vermeiren, Lucres M. C. Jansen. Sexuality and Autistic-Like Symptoms in Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Follow-Up After 8 Years, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2016, pp. 2679-2691, Volume 46, Issue 8, DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-2805-6