Rebecca L. Fix

Disproportionate minority contact: comparisons across juveniles adjudicated for sexual and non-sexual offenses

The overrepresentation of racial/ethnic minorities within the criminal justice system relative to their population percentage, a phenomenon termed disproportionate minority contact, has been examined within general adult and adolescent offender populations; yet few studies have tested whether this phenomenon extends to juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs). In addition, few studies have examined whether offender race/ethnicity influences registration and notification requirements, which JSOs are subject to in some U.S. states. The present study assessed for disproportionate minority contact among general delinquent offenders and JSOs, meaning it aimed to test whether the criminal justice system treats those accused of sexual and non-sexual offenses differently by racial/ethnic group. Furthermore, racial/ethnic group differences in risk, legal classification, and sexual offending were examined for JSOs. Results indicated disproportionate minority contact was present among juveniles with non-sexual offenses and JSOs in Alabama. In addition, offense category and risk scores differed between African American and European American JSOs. Finally, registration classifications were predicted by offending characteristics, but not race/ethnicity. Implications and future directions regarding disproportionate minority contact among JSOs and social and legal policy affecting JSOs are discussed.

Disproportionate Minority Contact Among Juveniles Adjudicated for Sexual, Violent, and General Offending The Importance of Home, School, and Community Contexts

The present study tested whether differences in violence exposure and parent and peer attachment help explain why disproportionate minority contact is lower among adolescents adjudicated for sexual offending than among adolescents adjudicated for other offenses. The 1,109 male juvenile offenders recruited from a juvenile detention center were interviewed, completed self-report measures, and legal documentation of prior offenses was obtained. Using a hierarchical multinomial logistic regression, a unique constellation of factors were found to predict sexual and violent offending relative to general offending. Moreover, the influence of race/ethnicity was diminished in the final model, suggesting disproportionate minority contact is partially explained by contextual factors.

Trait psychopathy, emotional intelligence, and criminal thinking: predicting illegal behavior among college students

Research focusing on individuals high on trait psychopathy remains limited. Higher trait psychopathy is associated with lower levels of emotional intelligence and increased participation in illegal behavior. Additionally, research has confirmed significantly higher levels of criminal thinking and lower levels of empathy in the incarcerated psychopathic population. However, the relationships between trait psychopathy and criminal thinking have not been researched in the community or college population. To test for such differences, questionnaires containing relevant measures were administered to 111 college students. Results indicated that higher levels of trait psychopathy were significantly related to less caring for others, intrapersonal understanding, and general mood, and greater interpersonal functioning and stress management. Furthermore, trait psychopathy was a strong predictor of violent, property, drug, and status offenses. Power-oriented criminal thinking was also predictive of violent behaviors, and entitlement predicted property offending. Results suggest emotional intelligence is important for predicting psychopathy, and trait psychopathy is a strong predictor of all types of illegal behaviors among the non-incarcerated population.

Relationships Between Family and Community Factors on Delinquency and Violence among African American Adolescents A Critical Review

Among the most powerful antecedents to delinquency and violence are the family of origin and the community context in which the adolescent lives. Additionally, it is recognized that family and community factors may mutually and interactively influence delinquency. Fourteen studies were reviewed to examine the relationship between family and community factors on delinquency or violence among male African American adolescents. Nine studies examined delinquency, three studies examined violence, and two studies had both delinquency and violence as outcome variables. Findings affirmed the importance of concurrently examining community and family factors when investigating delinquency or violence. Two overarching patterns between family and community factors on delinquency and violence were observed across studies. Protective family factors appeared to buffer against the negative impact of influential community factors, while protective community factors appeared to reduce delinquency or violence on the family level. Additionally, the presence of detrimental factors at both family and community levels exacerbated delinquency or violence. Race/ethnicity moderated observed family–community relationships in several studies, but insufficient evidence of race/ethnicity as a moderator was indicated overall. Finally, future research is warranted examining models of delinquency and violence that includes multiple contexts with race/ethnicity as a moderator.

Treating Emetophobia and Panic Symptoms in an Adolescent Female A Case Study

Emetophobia is an understudied specific phobia, especially during the developmental stage of adolescence. Adult and child literatures suggest that a combined approach of psychopharmacological and cognitive-behavioral interventions may be an efficacious treatment for emetophobia. Despite evidence supporting the success of this therapeutic approach, research assessing treatment outcomes of adolescent populations with the disorder remains limited. The current study presents a case study of the successful use of combined treatment for emetophobia in an adolescent female. Therapy included psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and exposure therapy in tandem with Sertraline 50 mg. Upon termination of therapeutic services, symptoms of emetophobia were significantly reduced, panic attacks had remitted, and the continued use of psychotropic medication was no longer indicated. Findings in the present case study suggest that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) including exposure-based therapy effectively reduced emetophobia symptoms and panic attacks for the patient. The implications for these findings in treating adolescents with emetophobia are discussed.

Childhood Sexual Abuse in Adolescents Adjudicated for Sexual Offenses: Mental Health Consequences and Sexual Offending Behaviors.

Most studies on the mental health consequences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) focus predominantly on CSA survivors who do not commit sexual offenses. The current study examined the effects of CSA on 498 male adolescents adjudicated for sexual offenses who represent the small portion of CSA survivors who engage in sexual offenses. The prevalence of internalizing symptoms, parental attachment difficulties, specific sexual offending behaviors, and risk for sexually offending were compared among participants with and without a history of CSA. Results indicated that participants with a history of CSA were more likely to be diagnosed with major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder than those who did not report a history of CSA. A history of CSA was also positively correlated with risk for sexually offending and with specific offense patterns and consensual sexual behaviors. No significant differences emerged on parental attachment difficulties. These results highlight that adolescents adjudicated for sexual offenses with a history of CSA present with differences in sexual and psychological functioning as well as markedly different offending patterns when compared with those without a CSA history. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

The Neuropsychology of Adolescent Sexual Offending: Testing an Executive Dysfunction Hypothesis

Although executive dysfunctions are commonly hypothesized to contribute to sexual deviance or aggression, evidence of this relationship is scarce and its specificity is unproven, especially among adolescents. The objective of this study was to compare the executive functioning (EF) of adolescents with sexual offense convictions (ASOC) to that of non-sex-delinquents (NSD). A secondary goal was to assess the relationship among specific sexual offense characteristics (i.e., victim age), history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and EF. It was hypothesized that as a group, ASOC would present similar EF profiles as NSD. It was further hypothesized that ASOC with child victims would present significantly higher rates of CSA and more severe impairment of EF than ASOC with peer-aged or older victims and NSD. A total of 183 male adolescents (127 ASOC and 56 NSD) were interviewed to collect demographic information, sexual development history, history of CSA, an assessment of living conditions, and history of delinquency and sexual offending. Participants were administered the Delis–Kaplan Executive Functioning System and the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Youth Version. In accord with the first hypothesis, ASOC and NSD presented similar EF scores, well below normative values. Thus, EF deficits may not characterize the profiles of adolescents with sexual behavior problems. Contrarily to our second hypothesis, however, offending against children and or experiencing CSA were not associated with poorer EF performance. On the contrary, ASOC with child victims obtained significantly higher scores on measures of higher order EF than both ASOC with peer-aged or older victims and NSD. Implications of these results and future directions are discussed.

Risky sex: testing moderated mediation among college students

Purpose Risky sexual behavior (RSB) on college campuses contributes to elevated rates of sexually transmitted infections and sexual assault. Research indicates a positive association between sexual victimization history (SVH) and RSB with alcohol use and sexual sensation seeking as mediators to this association. Hypermasculinity has also been shown to play a moderating role amongst these associations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to test the associations between RSB, SVH, alcohol use, sexual sensation seeking, and hypermasculinity. Design/methodology/approach Participants were 493 undergraduates who completed measures of RSB, SVH, alcohol use, sexual sensation seeking, and hypermasculinity. A moderated mediation model was run examining the association between SVH and RSB, with alcohol use and sexual sensation seeking tested as mediators of the relationship between SVH and RSB. In addition, hypermasculinity was tested as a moderator of the mediated relationship between SVH and the aforementioned mediator variables. Findings Alcohol use and sexual sensation seeking partially mediated the association between SVH and RSB. Masculinity moderated the association between SVH and RSB via sexual sensation seeking and between SVH and RSB via alcohol use. Research limitations/implications Individuals with SVH might be at a higher risk for alcohol use and sexual sensation seeking, ultimately increasing their risk for RSB. University policy implications include implementing alcohol use and awareness interventions, strengthening sexual victimization policies, and including screenings for SVH at counseling and medical centers. Originality/value Previous findings were extended by showing how SVH leads to RSB.

Race, Offense Type, and Suicide Ideation: Tests of the Interpersonal‐Psychological Theory in Juvenile Offenders

This study evaluated the synergy hypothesis of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS), which argues thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness are positively interactive in their association with suicide ideation, in a group of juvenile offenders. It also examined whether this prediction is differentially applicable across race/ethnicity or offense type. Participants included 590 adjudicated and confined male juveniles. Regression was used to test the association between suicide ideation and thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and their interaction term. Subsequent analyses included tests of group interactions related to race/ethnicity and offense type. No interaction between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness was observed, despite adequate power. No significant group interactions were observed for race/ethnicity or offense type. However, results did show significant linear relationships between thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and ideation, highlighting their potential utility as intervention targets in this at-risk population. Thus, although the current results are the first to show the basic IPTS risk factors generalize across race/ethnicity and offense type, they also failed to support that those factors were interactive, a primary IPTS claim. The absence of an interaction between thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness suggests their role in suicide ideation for juvenile offenders may be more parsimonious than the IPTS proposes.

Judicial Decision-Making and Juvenile Offenders: Effects of Medical Evidence and Victim Age

ABSTRACT A growing body of evidence suggests that jurors place greater weight on DNA or other types of forensic evidence than non-forensic evidence (Cole & Dioso-Villa, 2009). For cases involving child sexual abuse, certain types of evidence, including forensic medical evidence, may be viewed as more important or indicative of abuse than other types of evidence, such as victim statements or disclosure. The present study evaluated perceptions of juvenile offenders and victim credibility across four vignettes that systematically manipulated variables related to victim age and physical indicators of abuse. A sample of 636 participants read vignettes and answered questions pertaining to the vignette. Participants also provided demographic information and responded to a series of items assessing participants’ judicial decision-making strategies and outcomes. Broadly, the presence of medical evidence significantly influenced participants’ decision-making across a variety of variables, including verdict outcome, verdict confidence, confidence that the victim was truthful, and determinations involving sex offender registration and notification requirements. The influence of medical evidence and victim age on perceptions and sentencing of juvenile sex offenders across these and additional outcome variables will be discussed.