Sex Offenses and Offending

The extent to which the law should concern itself with the regulation of consensual sexual activities is a subject of continuing controversy. Dramatic differences exist between countries in regard to law and practice concerning abortion, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, pornography, and the age of consent. In many countries the numbers of reported sex offenses and prosecuted sex offenses have decreased in recent years, most noticeably for crimes, such as consensual sexual intercourse with underage girls, where there is no complaining victim. Consensual acts account for a substantial proportion of recorded sex crimes. In England and the United States, however, there has been a significant increase in the minority of serious, assaultive sex crimes, notably forcible rape. Children and young persons are involved as participants or victims in a high proportion of sex offenses. Studies of offenders point to the existence of subgroups with very different characteristics. Many offenders, once caught, are never reconvicted. A small minority, especially among exhibitionists and pedophiles, are persistent recidivists. Aggressive, assaultive sex offenders tend to be young, poorly socialized, of low socioeconomic status, and with conviction records for nonsexual crime. Child molesters are less often criminal and rarely violent. Many are social inadequates who choose children because they are easy to persuade rather than from a true pedophiliac fixation. Some of the most violent offenders are motivated by frustration and anger more than by lust. Many sex offenders, especially those lacking in social skills, afflicted with some unwanted deviant fixation, or emotionally frustrated in their sexual relationships, have problems for which treatment techniques, both behavioristic and psychotherapeutic, have been developed. While it may be difficult to validate effectiveness in terms of long-term reduction in recidivism, there are practical and humanitarian reasons for developing more treatment facilities and diverting more cases from prison.