Personality Characteristics of Juvenile Sexual Offenders and Rearing Style of Their Parents in Taiwan

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to explore risk factors of personal characteristics, parental rearing attitude, and other variables among juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs). Method: We compared the personality characteristics of 76 JSOs and their parents' child-rearing style to 50 juveniles of nonoffenders. We administered the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) and the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) to all, and their demographic data were collected. Results: The results showed that offenders have a higher level of neuroticism personality characteristics than the nonoffender juveniles (ρ＜ 0.001). In terms of the parents' child-rearing style, the JSOs had a lower level of paternal care (ρ＜ 0.01) and maternal care (ρ＜ 0.001) than the comparison group. All substance use, including tobacco, alcohol and illegal drug, offenders have a higher abuse than the nonoffender juveniles (ρ＜ 0.001, p ＜ 0.001, ρ＜ 0.001). The parsimonious regression model shows three risk factors related JSOs: tobacco use, father's education level, and parental marital status. Conclusion: The profile of the JSOs would help identify and assess JSOs during intervention. Our study showed that many significant characteristics were different with juveniles of non-offenders. We have found some different characteristics among sexual offenders, but further explanatory studies are needed to explore their relationship of casualty with sexual offending behavior to confirm whether these characteristics can be helpful in designing treatment programs for juvenile sexual offenders.