Versatile Offenders Research Articles

Distinguishing Two Types of Adolescent Sex Offenders

To distinguish between adolescent sex offenders according to nonsexual offense history. Thirty-two sex offenders, 48 criminally versatile offenders, and 34 nonaggressive offenders referred by youth courts for mental health assessments in Toronto, Canada between 1994 and 1997 were compared on measures of childhood conduct problems, current behavioral adjustment, antisocial attitudes and beliefs, and risk for future delinquency. Sex offenders were further divided into those without (sex-only) and those with (sex-plus) nonsexual offenses in their criminal histories. Sex offenders were similar to non-sex offenders in their childhood conduct problems, current behavioral adjustment, and antisocial attitudes and beliefs, but they had a lower risk for future delinquency. Sex-only offenders had significantly fewer childhood conduct problems, better current adjustment, more prosocial attitudes, and a lower risk for future delinquency than did the non-sex offender groups, whereas sex-plus offenders resembled criminally versatile offenders. Differences between sex-only and sex-plus offenders reflect a valid typological distinction. Discrimination between these two groups is important when assigning sex offenders to appropriate interventions.

SPECIALIZATION IN JUVENILE COURT CAREERS

The study of specialization in offending careers is relevant to the key theoretical issue of whether different types of offending reject only one underlying theoretical construct (such as delinquent tendency) or several different constructs. This research improves on previous studies of specialization in offending careers in three ways: (1) It is based on the complete juvenile court careers of a very large sample of offenders (nearly 70,000). (2) It uses a fine‐grained classification of 21 offense types. (3) It uses a new measure of the strength of specialization, the Forward Specialization Coefficient (FSC). Both transition matrices and offending careers are studied.The major findings from the transition matrices are (1) there was a small but significant degree of specialization in offending superimposed on a great deal of versatility: (2) the degree of specialization tended to increase with successive referrals, and this was not due to more versatile offenders dropping out: and (3) the relative extent to which offenders specialized in different offenses held for two jurisdictions (Maricopa County, Arizona, and Utah), both sexes, and all ages.The analyses of offending careers showed that the most specialized offenses were runaway, burglary, motor vehicle theft, liquor violations, incorrigibility, curfew, truancy, and drugs. Nearly 20 percent of the offenders were identified as specialists. The conclusion is that, while offending was versatile to a first approximation, delinquency theories should attempt to explain specialization and specialists in order to yield more accurate quantitative predictions about offending careers.