Experimental Effects of Substance Use Legality (Sober, Alcohol, Marijuana, Cocaine) and Sexual Crime (Indecent Exposure, Rape) on Attributions of Perpetrator Responsibility, Blame, and Punishment

The removal of the President of the United States from office is a rare and significant event. This study investigated the influence of procedural fairness and blame attributions on punishment and support attitudes during the 1998 impeachment of President Clinton. This study assessed the influence of the procedural fairness of Clinton's behavior, procedural fairness of the Kenneth Starr/Congress investigation, satisfaction with Clinton policies, and blame attributions on punishment attitudes (i.e., whether Clinton should be removed from office) and support attitudes (i.e., whether individuals would vote for Clinton if an election were held today). Both the procedural fairness of Starr/Congress and procedural fairness of Clinton' behavior significantly influenced punishment and support attitudes. Procedural fairness of Clinton had indirect effects on punishment attitudes (through perceived blame of Clinton) and direct effects on support attitudes. Procedural fairness of Starr/Congress had direct effects on both punishment and support attitudes.

This chapter looks into the crimes of rape, sexual offences, and assault as consolidated by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The severity of sexual offences depends on whether the individual was assaulted by penetration or touching and whether the individual was over or under 13 or 16 years old. Several sections of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 address the offences of voyeurism, indecent exposure, and public decency. The chapter cites the offence of administering a substance against another person under the intent of committing a sexual offence. Meanwhile, the first section of the Street Offences Act 1959 disallows people over 18 to persistently loiter or solicit in a street or public place for prostitution.

Reviewed by: Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing Deviance by Janet Weston Simon A. Cole Janet Weston. Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, 1919–1960s: Diagnosing Deviance. London: Bloomsbury, 2018. x + 205 pp. £85.00 (978–1–350–02109–9). Over the course of the fifty-year period following the First World War, the attitude of English doctors toward sexual crime evolved from indifference to modest interest in diagnosis, etiology, and treatment. In Medicine, the Penal System and Sexual Crimes in England, Janet Weston chronicles this development. The first chapter places this development in the context of the emergence of “modern” criminology, which treated crime as a congenital defect amenable to cure, rather than a mere issue of free will. However, Weston argues that the influence of the new criminology was less strong in England than elsewhere. Havelock Ellis, for example, despite his notoriety, was more an outlier than representative. For the most part, English doctors and jurists remained cautious about new understandings of sexual crime that strayed too far from individual responsibility. The second chapter concerns medical research into sexual crime, which emerged in England in the 1920s. William Norwood East, the head of the prison medical service and then commissioner of prisons, particularly spearheaded this effort. Not surprisingly, research focused on “perversions” and crimes considered “abnormal,” such as homosexual acts and indecent exposure, which threatened ideals of masculinity. Researchers showed less interest in crimes such as male heterosexual rape and child sexual abuse and sexual crimes committed by women. [End Page 714] In the third chapter, Weston addresses the issue of etiology and treatment. Among etiological perspectives, she finds more eclecticism than hegemony: “Doctors did not establish one single explanation for the causes of crime, nor, it seems, did they want to” (p. 78). Treatment was similarly eclectic, including sex education, psychotherapy, hormone therapy, aversion therapy, and brain surgery. But “psychotherapy established itself early on as a vital component of the diagnosis and treatment of sexual offenders, and remained the cornerstone of nearly all efforts to cure such offender [sic] throughout the period in question” (pp. 70–71). Other treatments tended to be offered as supplements to psychotherapy. Unlike some European countries and some of the United States, England did not employ surgical castration. Chapter 4 follows English prison doctors into the courtroom. Again, the picture Weston paints is heterogeneous. The evidence given by prison doctors varied in its nature, and its procedural treatment by the courts varied from courtroom to courtroom. The presence or absence of expert medical opinion seemed to depend more on the resources and status of the defendant than on the nature of the crime or diagnosis. Because medical evidence so often consisted of subjective opinions, it was vulnerable to rebuttal. Compared to continental jurisdictions, this vulnerability was particularly prone to exploitation in the English adversarial legal system. England also stood out from other countries in its broad use of probation for all offenders, rather than just juveniles. Probation offered a way of punishing and treating sex offenders in a manner consistent with the English insistence on individual responsibility. In chapter 5, Weston considers the possibility of cure. In general, cure was rarely attempted and even more rarely achieved. English prison doctors were skeptical of their own ability to effect cures: “They were at pains to emphasize that the many possible causes behind sexual offending were easier to diagnose than to cure” (pp. 120–21). Cures were generally only offered to relatively educated and articulate offenders with means and relatively tractable deviancies. The emphasis of researching curable offenders may have distorted research efforts by driving prison doctors to gravitate toward the most promising cases, rather than the most dire. In the conclusion, Weston resists making broad pronouncements about English medical attitudes toward sexual crime during the period in question. One senses that this resistance to generalization reflects her evidence. English medicine was heterogeneous, eclectic, uncertain, and cautious in its attitude toward sexual crime. Weston nicely characterizes the state of diagnosis and treatment as one of “ontological anarchy” (p. 128). Thus, “for male sexual offenders, many different medical theories of causation could comfortably coexist” (p. 128...

This study investigated substance use in rape and child molestation. We hypothesized that perpetrator substance use would be associated with a greater increase in rapists' aggression in sexual crimes compared with that of child molesters. We also predicted that victim substance use would be negatively related to both rapists and child molesters' aggression in sexual crimes. The sample included 245 male rapists and 273 male child molesters who had been evaluated at the Massachusetts Treatment Center (MTC) between 1959 and 1991 for potential civil commitment. Data were obtained from offenders' archival records and were coded by trained research assistants on perpetrator and victim substance use and perpetrator aggression in sexual crimes. Analyses showed that the magnitude of the positive association between perpetrator alcohol use and aggression in sexual crimes did not differ between rapists and child molesters. In contrast, perpetrator drug use was associated with increased aggression among child molesters only. Victim substance use was related to increased aggression among rapists only. The results indicate that victim substance use and perpetrator drug use, but not perpetrator alcohol use, are differentially related to the aggression of rapists and child molesters in sexual crimes. Those findings imply that substance use may play different roles depending on offender type.

Undergraduate students' perceptions of child sexual abuse: Effects of age, sex, and gender-role attitudes

Sex offences are overrepresented in the mentally handicapped, but information about the characteristics and offence behaviour of this group is limited. A retrospective case note survey was made of 47 male patients referred for antisocial sexual behaviour. Of 191 offences and/or incidents committed, 55.5% were heterosexual, 24% indecent exposure, 12.4% homosexual, 13.6% serious and 3.6% involved physical assault. Average age of the offenders was 23.9 years, with a mean IQ of 59.5, and there was a high prevalence of family psychopathology, psychiatric illness, minor physical disabilities, sexual experience, impaired relationship skills and sexual recidivism. Recidivists showed a low specificity for offence type and age and sex of victim. Categorical analysis differentiated a 'sex offences only' group from a 'sex plus other offences' group in the key areas of psychopathology, offence behaviour and outcome; this was supported by factor analysis. The finding of two subgroups of mentally handicapped male sex offenders has important implications for prevention, assessment and treatment.

The current study examined the extent to which the temporal order of sexual offending may be risk-relevant for men with Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM; also referred to as child pornography) offences. We categorized 85 men who had committed two distinct sexual offences (CSEM or contact sexual offence) into three groups: (1) 47% (n = 40) followed a stable pattern, that is, men with CSEM offences who then committed a new CSEM offence; (2) 41% (n = 35) followed a de-escalation pattern, that is, men with contact sexual offences who then committed a CSEM offence; (3) and 12% (n = 10) followed an escalation pattern, that is, men with CSEM offences who then committed a contact sexual offence. Compared to the other groups, the stable group had more sexual interest in children, the de-escalation group had a younger age at first police involvement and more prior offending, and the escalation group had more substance use problems. We then examined recidivism (any new offence after the second sexual offence) and found that the escalation group had the highest 5-year and 7-year reoffending rates (start of follow-up: opportunity after the second sexual offence) for any crime, any non-sexual violence, any violence (including contact sexual offences), and any contact sexual recidivism. The de-escalation and stable groups had the highest CSEM recidivism rates. The current study suggests that ordering of offending within men adjudicated for CSEM offences is risk-relevant and that those who fit the escalation pattern may be at higher risk to reoffend.

Background Substance use before sex is associated with riskier behaviors. Sex-related substance use motives may explain pre-sex substance use. We explored what sex-related motives are associated with alcohol versus drug use, and which motives underlie heavier use. Methods A sample of 936 participants (50% male, 80% White) completed an Internet survey about sexuality. Those who drank before sex (n = 657) reported on six sex-related drinking motives; those who used drugs before sex (n = 271) reported on six (parallel) sex-related drug use motives. The frequency of endorsement of each motive between drinkers and drug users was compared with z-distributions. Logistic regressions assessed whether motives were associated with substance use frequency and intoxication before sex. Results Substance use to relax and to get a sex partner to use were more commonly endorsed for alcohol than drugs; substance use to improve performance and enhance experience were more commonly endorsed for drugs. Most motives were associated with alcohol frequency and intoxication before sex. None were associated with drug frequency; some were associated with drug intoxication. Conclusions Alcohol was generally used to facilitate sex, and drugs to enhance sex. Sex-related drinking motives were associated with drinking before sex; sex-related drug use motives were less predictive.

Relations among childhood victimization, substance use prior to the commission of a sexual offense, and force used during a sexual offense were examined in a sample of residentially based, male juvenile sex offenders ( n = 406; Mage = 16.6). Marshall and Marshall’s (2000) theory of sex offending proposes that childhood victimization, among other factors, creates a vulnerability to offend, which when paired with disinhibition (e.g., from substance use) may lead to sexual offending. Guided by this theory, we examined whether substance use prior to the commission of a sexual offense mediated the relation between trauma and force used in sexual offending. Six mediation analyses were used to examine subtypes of childhood victimization and the effects of cumulative victimization. Results provided support for partial mediation of substance use prior to a sexual offense on the effects of cumulative victimization on force used during a sexual offense. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Maternal Substance Use Disorders and Accidental Drug Poisonings in Children

Despite the fact that several studies have addressed racial differences in substance use, there still exist gaps in understanding the development of substance use among African-Americans. In this chapter, we focused on three major gaps: (1) the lack of attention to heterogeneity among substance users and substances used, (2) the failure to adequately explain why there are differences in age of onset, prevalence, and frequency of substance use for African-Americans compared to Whites, and (3) the lack of research to examine racial differences in how substance use relates to other behaviors. To address these gaps, we used data from two prospective longitudinal studies, the Pittsburgh Youth Study and the Pittsburgh Girls Study. Consistent with other studies, we found racial differences in substance use. However, the nature and direction of these differences depended on the type of drug examined, as well as the age, gender, and cohort of the respondents. Therefore, when examining racial differences in substance use, one must consider individual and contextual factors. There were few racial differences in progression from initiation to regular use and few proximal or distal predictors of later onset tobacco smoking among African-American young men. However, for young women, it appeared that racial differences in the development of positive alcohol and tobacco expectancies might explain some of the observed differences in substance use. More research is needed to identify individual and normative factors that may affect racial differences in experimental and regular use of drugs. Finally, although we found, as other studies have also found, that violence is related to alcohol and drug intoxication and to drug dealing, there were no racial differences in these associations. Future research should focus on determining whether differential prevention targets are needed for African-Americans and Whites and evaluate differential efficacy of interventions.

This practice parameter describes the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with substance use disorders and is based on scientific evidence and clinical consensus regarding diagnosis and effective treatment as well as on the current state of clinical practice. This parameter considers risk factors for substance use and related problems, normative use of substances by adolescents, the comorbidity of substance use disorders with other psychiatric disorders, and treatment settings and modalities. (Reprinted with permission from the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2005; 44(6):609–621)

The majority—96%—of sexual crime on railways is high-volume and of medium–low seriousness: principally non-penetrative assault, public indecency and indecent exposure. Most (81%) of these offences take place on trains, trams or station platforms, and 35% of all sexual offences are committed on the London Underground system, mainly on trains. More serious offences—penetrative assault and rape—tend to occur in station buildings. Detection rates were lower for offences committed on trains, trams and platforms than elsewhere at railway stations. They were also lower in the British Transport Police London and South subdivisions, a likely reflection of the high levels of sexual offences compared with police resources there and also of the higher incidence of less serious offences that tend to occur on trains, where reporting of offences is more difficult. Fewer offences were reported to British Transport Police officers, railway staff and other police officers in the London and South areas. Detection rates were lower for less serious sexual offences, partly because they occur on trains and at certain, often busy, times of day. The ways in which sexual offences were reported had an important effect on detection when controlling for offence type, time of day, type of offence and subdivision. There was a hierarchy of detection rates, with offences reported to British Transport Police officers the likeliest to be detected. Those reported to railway staff had rather lower detection rates, with police officers from territorial police forces like the Metropolitan Police Force detecting few cases still. Reports telephoned in by victims directly fared far worse, and those communicated by victims using email, text or social media had the lowest detection rates of all. It is possible that the manner in which victims choose to report offences also depends on their perceptions of how likely it is that police will make an arrest, so that reporting medium is a ‘marker’ for offence solvability. Reporting medium is an important factor affecting rail sex crime solvability. It would be better for detection outcomes if more sexual offences were reported to police officers, particularly BTP officers or railway staff. Detection rates could be elevated if there were improved means for victims to report crimes on trains in transit so that, where possible, offenders could be intercepted by officers either while still on trains or when they alight. This would be less feasible on the trains in the central London Underground, where travel time between stations is short. Equally, visible CCTV to deter and covert CCTV to identify offenders in the act on trains where there is a high incidence of sexual offending may also offer potential to boost detections—accepting limitations on crowded trains, such as London commuter trains and the Underground at rush hours. Clearly, a solution to such offences on overcrowded trains would be more coaches or more trains, depending on the routes involved. Additional CCTV equipment might be usefully installed on staircases and escalators prone to penetrative assaults.

It was hypothesized that environmental rather than endogenous factors are responsible for seasonal differences in rapes and other sex crimes. Data on four types of sex crimes, nine meteorological variables, and photochemical oxidants, covering a 2-year period, were collected to test this hypothesis. As hypothesized, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that seasonal differences in rapes, indecent exposure, and miscellaneous sex crimes shrank to nonsignificance after meteorological variables were added to prediction equations, but seasonal differences in obscene phone calls retained their significance in analyses that controlled for atmospheric conditions. Further analysis revealed that fewer sex crimes were committed on cold than warm days, and ozone was associated with complaints about obscene phone calls. It was concluded that tabulations of seasonal trends should give way to experiments on the effects of atmospheric variables on sexual and other types of behavior.

Racial disparities in the U.S. juvenile justice system appear to be attenuated for people with sexual and violent versus drug and property offenses. Existing theories such as the racial threat hypothesis partially explain these racial disparities, but the definition of “threat” could limit our ability to explain juvenile justice outcomes across offense categories. Importantly, research often overlooks the different and unique threats associated with violent and sexual crimes. The present study examined impacts of racial threat and an expanded definition of “threat” associated with violent and sexual crime on (a) preadjudication detention and (b) dispositions of postadjudication confinement. Statewide archival court data were obtained regarding 212,274 male and female adolescents. In the full models, less severe violent (assault vs. homicide) and sexual offenses (indecent exposure and child pornography vs. sexual abuse) were associated with lower use of detention and secure confinement. This impact of specific violent and sexual offenses on court outcomes were observed in models run with Black adolescents and models separated by violent offenses and sexual offenses. Higher rates of county-level homicide prosecutions and White-to-Black unemployment were significantly and positively associated with detention and confinement, respectively. Racial threat and other theories aiming to explain racial disparities should be reexamined and modified to include markers of violent and sexual offense stigma and threat. Further, models testing racial disparities should include an expanded definition of “threat” in selecting indicators. Our suggested modified theory could better elucidate racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and presents important practice implications.