ABSTRACT
The prevalence of sex offenses committed by juvenile sexual offenders (JSOs) has only recently been explored, and implications of the data are staggering. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) found that in 1997, individuals under the age of 18 were involved in 27% of all serious violent victimizations, including 14% of sexual assaults and 27% of aggravated assaults (Snyder & Sickmund, as cited in Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency, 1999). More specific to the topic of this article, it is estimated that juveniles, particularly males, are responsible for 20% of all rapes and 30 to 50% of all child molestations (Brown, Flanagan, & McLeod, 1984). Moreover, almost 50% of adult sex offenders disclose engaging in some form of sexual offending during adolescence (Able, Mittleman, & Becker, 1985), and the ratio of committed offenses to arrests can be as low as 1:150 (Abel et al., 1987). In addition, juveniles are responsible for approximately 60% of all sexual offenses committed against children younger than 12 years of age (Bourke & Donohue, 1996). Given these statistics, it is not surprising that increasing focus has been given to this population.
