Individual, Family and Abuse Characteristics of 700 British Child and Adolescent Sexual Abusers

Hackett, S.; Phillips, J.; Masson, H.; Balfe, M.

doi:10.1002/car.2246

Individual, Family and Abuse Characteristics of 700 British Child and Adolescent Sexual Abusers

Hackett, S.; Phillips, J.; Masson, H.; Balfe, M.

Authors

Professor Simon Hackett simon.hackett@durham.ac.uk
Professor

J. Phillips

H. Masson

M. Balfe

Abstract

The individual, family and abuse characteristics of 700 children and young people referred to nine UK services over a nine-year period between 1992 and 2000 as a result of their sexually abusive behaviours were examined. The most common age at referral was 15 years, though a third of all referrals related to children aged 13 or under. Thirty-eight per cent of the sample were identified as learning disabled. Surprisingly high rates of sexual and non-sexual victimisation were present in the backgrounds of the children and young people referred. A wide range of abusive behaviours was perpetrated with just over half of the sample having penetrated or having attempted to penetrate another individual. Victims were usually known to the abuser but in 75 per cent of cases were not related. Fifty-one per cent of the sample abused females only, though 49 per cent had at least one male victim. The implications for policy and practice with children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours are discussed.

Citation

Hackett, S., Phillips, J., Masson, H., & Balfe, M. (2013). Individual, Family and Abuse Characteristics of 700 British Child and Adolescent Sexual Abusers. Child Abuse Review, 22(4), 232-245. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2246

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 1, 2012
Online Publication Date	Feb 27, 2013
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Mar 5, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Feb 21, 2017
Journal	Child Abuse Review
Print ISSN	0952-9136
Electronic ISSN	1099-0852
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	22
Issue	4
Pages	232-245
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2246
Keywords	Adolescent sex offender, Sexual abuse, Sexual offending, Characteristics.

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Hackett, S., Phillips, J., Masson, H. and Balfe, M. (2013), Individual, Family and Abuse Characteristics of 700 British Child and Adolescent Sexual Abusers. Child Abuse Review, Special Issue: Children and Young People Who Harm Others, 22(4): 232-245, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2246. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.