“Offenders Are Heterogeneous in Nature” Discuss.

Offenders are Heterogeneous in nature, con head for the hills Offenders are a intricate state of individuals, which range from shop lifters to murderers. at that place are clear intergroup remainders ground on characteristics of the wrongdoer, victim and the crime. hence it is real difficult to discuss the possible heterogeneity of all offenders as maven group, indeed this paper leave focus on i token eccentric somebody of offender. finish offenders are frequently viewed as a alike class of individuals, the public do not tend to distinguish the odd custodyt between indecent exposure and rape merely considering these offenders as half-crazed or evil (Bartol & Bartol 2008). On the other hand research conducted by Knight, Rosenberg and Schneider (1985) shows that hinge upon offenders differ extensively in terms of the frequency and type of trip outual activity they eng mature in. They to a fault differ in ad hominem traits such(prenominal) as mount up, background, p ersonality, race, religion, beliefs, attitudes, and interpersonal skills.Further more there are perfect differences in the Modus Operandi (M. O) of wake up offenders, for instance gender and age of the victim, the degree of readiness before the offence and the amount of forcefulness theatrical roled or intended. Therefore explorative research shows clear discrimination regarding the heterogeneity of shake up offenders, thus the homogeneity of this group will as well as be considered. A person is labelled a hinge on offender when they are convicted of a fireual practice crime this may include, rape, sexual besiege, kidskin sexual squall, paedophilia, frotteurism, exhibitionism, incest, necrophilia and so on.The major(ip)ity of studies used in this essay will be centred on sex offenders who pull in affiliated rape, sexual assault, baby sexual abuse and paedophilia. gum olibanum it is necessary to define some of these terms, the most common explanation of rape is th e penetration of the anus or vagina by a penis, finger or object or the penetration of the mouth by a penis. (Polaschek, hospital ward & Hudson, 1997). Sexual abuse is defined by the Sexual and Domestic delirium Services (SDVS) as when a sexual act is intentional and is entrustted either by physical force, threat or intimidation and by ignoring the objections of another person. . The major difference between sex offenders is the age of their victim, rapists and offenders who perpetrate sexual abuse prey on persons of 16 years of age or over, whereas chela molester and paedophile victims are under 16 years of age. Firstly we need to consider when discussing the heterogeneity of sex offenders is the different typologies involved. seek has shown that offenders sexual attack can be divided into two clear-cut groups instrumental and expressive.Instrumental sexual aggression occurs when the sex offenders only use enough coercion so that the victim complies and expressive sexual aggression this is when the offenders fundamental motive is to physically and psychologically victimize the victim (Bartol & Bartol, 2008). On the other hand the assumption that sexual offenders invariably exhibit aggression is not always congruent according to Revitch and Schlesinger (1988) numerous sex offenders are not prone to violence only sort of are timid, shy and socially inhibited. Intra-group typologies should also be considered when looking at the differences between sex offenders. For physical exercise Groth et al. 1979) categorised Rapists into four main step in groups power-assurance, power-assertive, anger-retaliatory and anger-excitement. This first paladin group is the most common type of rapist, who rapes due(p) to insecurities about their masculinity. The power-assertive rapist is socially skilled, displays a exalted take aim of violence and is sexually confident. The third sub group has high levels of anger towards women, commits assail attacks and al so degrading activities are often involved. Finally the anger-excitement rapist is idealistic and gains pleasure and sexual excitement from seeing the distress of the victim (Bartol Bartol, 2008).Groth and Birnbaum (1978) created the regressed-fixated dichotomy of child molesters. Regressed offenders are men who have matured sexually but have returned to an earlier level of psychosexual development. Fixated offenders are said to be developmentally fixated on basis such that their sexual interest is in children (Howitt, 2002). These typologies give an insight into the major differences in basic characteristics and motives of sex offenders, which garnish the point that they diverge in terms of their nature. The demographics of sex offenders also shed light on the similarities and differences of sex offenders.First gender will be considered, unsurprisingly the majority of sex offenders are masculine, and 95. 5% of sex offenders in the Federal Probation and Pre-trial Services System in the U. S are male. On the other hand, Kaplan and Green (1995) reported data which indicated that between 4 and 25 share of victims of child sexual abuse stated their abusers were female. Therefore it indicates that the population of female sex offenders is underestimated. However it can be said with conviction that the majority of sex offenders are male, this fact contradicts that they are heterogeneous in nature.Surprisingly research shows that sex offenders are often adolescent males (Bartol & Bartol, 2008), Becker and Johnson (2001) put in that 20-30 percent of all rapes and 30-50 percent of child molestations are committed by this group. However the issue of median(a) age of a sex offender has been run aground to be more convoluted, as Hanson (2001) reported that child molesters tend to be older. This conclusion was supported as Henn, Herjanic, and Vanderpearl (1976) install that 75 percent of convicted rapists were under the age of 30 and 75 percent of child molester s were over.This indicates that the average age of the sex offender is in dispute. Knight, Rosenberg, and Schneider 1985 conducted a study which present a add of notable commonalities between pugnacious paedophiles and rapists. The first is that sex offenders have problems with alcohol. Another similarity is that they have a high appreciate of high school give awayure and dropout this is supported by a recent case study of 437 sex offenders conducted by Black and Pettway (2001). They discovered that 60 percent of child molesters and 70 percent of rapists did not graduate high school.The third commonality found was that sex offenders tend to have volatile work histories in humble occupations, Black and Pettway (2001) study supported this nevertheless it was found that child molesters had a higher history of stable work. The lowest commonality noted was the sex offenders tendency to sum from a low socioeconomic class. However, the case study antecedently discussed also enli ghtened several differences between sex offenders it found that the majority of rapists had never been married (65%) whereas two thirds of child molesters were married (66%).Another characteristic that showed disparity between sex offenders was race, it found that a larger proportion of child molesters were white (72%) and a greater proportion of rapists were black (60%). This shows that as a hale sex offending occurs across races, although it illustrates that peculiar(prenominal) sex crimes have a specific racial majority. Research has shown homogeneity in the level of intelligence of sex offenders. Cantor et al. (2005) found that male sex offenders jibe probatively lower in IQ measures than male who commit non-sexual offences.Nevertheless, this difference is not displayed uniformly across sex offender sub-types it was found that those offenders that commit rape against adults have the same IQ as non-sexual offenders. It was found that a significant decline in the level of the IQ of the sex offender came hand in hand with a decline in the age of the victim. Cantor et al. (2005) concluded that these results do not indicate that low IQ scores cause sex offending, merely that something may have happened during former(a) childhood to inhibit their cognitive functioning.Studies have supported the conviction that psyche who has experienced sexual abuse as a child is more likely to later engage in sex offences. For example Seto and Lalumiere (2008)conducted a meta-analysis and found that sex offenders were much more likely to have been sexually abused than non-offenders. Therefore, groups of adult sex offenders contain a disproportionate number of individuals who have experienced sexual abuse. This provides evidence that sex offenders are homogenised and a high number of them suffered sexual abuse as a child.Personality research into sex offenders has shown a homogenous trend among sex offenders. Aromaki, Lindman and Eriksson (2002) conducted a study into the levels of antisocial personality traits among a group of Finnish sex offenders and found that 50% had an anti-social personality dis assemble according to DSM-IV specifics. moreover sex offenders reliably demonstrate high levels of psychopathology (Stinson, Becker & Tromp, 2005). In a study of adult sex offenders it was found that 63% of these offenders exhibited a significant level of psychopathic traits ranging from mild to severe.Another homogeneous trait which male sex offenders share is cognitive distortions cognitive distortions are attitudes and beliefs which offenders use to deny, inform and rationalise their behaviour (Murphy, 1990). Most rapists tend to conform to attitudes that support men to be dominant, controlling and powerful whereas women are expected to be yielding permissive, and compliant (Bartol & Bartol, 2008). Furthermore Malamuth and Brown (1994) studied the perceptions of women in sexually aggressive men and found that suspicion was associated with attitude s which supported sexual aggression.These men broadly speaking believed that women do not tell the truth when it comes to sex (Milner & Webster, 2005). Also Polsheck and Gannon (2004) found that male rapists view women as hostile and they are dangerous. The combining of these attitudes and schemas has a strong disinhibitory effect on sex offenders, they encourages them to interpret enigmatic behaviour of their victims as come-ons and believe that sexual behaviours that are intended to haul women are not offensive. They also believe their rape victims derive blessedness from being assaulted. Lipton, McDonel, & McFall, 1987). cognitive distortions are also common among child molesters and paedophiles. For example Abel, Becker, and Cunningham-Rathner (1984) outlined seven common cognitive distortions among child molesters these included if children fail to resist advances, they must want sex, sexual activity with children is an tolerate means to increase the sexual knowledge of th e children and so on. Several researchers prove that child molesters do report similar sexual attitudes and beliefs about children. Hayashino et al. 1995) found in a comparison between the level of cognitive distortions of child molesters and non-offenders, that child molesters had more. This shows there is a theme of cognitive distortions among sex offenders. An instability of sex hormones has been shown to be a homogeneous factor throughout sex offenders, although the type and levels of hormones do vary between sex offender sub groups. A recent study conducted by Dabbs et al. (1995) high testosterone was found to be linked to crimes of sex and violence, so that the highest risk ratios for high testosterone men were detect for rape, child molestation and homicide, respectively.The Giotakos et al. (2003) study in rapists provides a more complex account of the hormone imbalance noting that, rapists were found to have higher levels of plasma testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and f ree androgen index than controls but lower levels of a major metabolite of serotonin. In paedophiles several serotonergic disturbances and increased epinephrine levels have been found (Maes et al. , 2001). Thus hormonal imbalances are a congruent theme in various sub-groups of sex offenders, indicating homogeneity.Another homogeneous aspect of the nature sex offenders is there general increase in sexual arousal due to antidromic sexual material. Many studies have used phallometric measurements in order to measure the sexual arousal of a participant to a specific sexual stimulus. Abel et al. (1997) used this technique to create the rape index which measurable responses to erotic material including force and coercion. The men with the highest response have the greater rape potential. A similar index was created for dangerous child molesters (Avery-Clark & Laws, 1984).The rigour of this index was confirmed by Wormith (1986) who found that the majority of the classifications based on circumference phallometric measurements of sex offenders were accurate. The final feature of the sex offender which should be discussed is their likelihood to commit recidivism. Some statistics show homogeneity in this orbit too, Hanson (2001) discovered a 19 percent sexual recidivism rate for child molesters and a 17 percent recidivism rate for rapists during five years see time after release. This points towards rates of recidivism being just under 20 percent for sex offenders.Although other studies show disparity in recidivism rates, one study found a 39 percent recidivism rate in child molesters after a three year follow up (Langan, Schmitt & Durose, 2003). In conclusion, although research indicates significant fundamental homogeneous themes of sex offenders such as alcoholism, low IQ, high school drop-out, history of sexual abuse, unskilled occupations, hormone imbalance, cognitive distortions and personality disorders. However these were shown to vary depending on the sub-g roup of sex offenders being discussed.Research has shown that sub-groups of rapists and child molesters vary on levels on the themes previously discussed. Demonstrating sex offenders can be divided into clear heterogeneous sub-groups based on their nature. This paper has highlighted the complexities of researching the heterogeneity of the offender as a whole group and has clearly supported the idea that sex offenders have inter-group heterogeneous characteristics. References Aromaki, A. S. , Lindman, R. E. and Eriksson, C. J. P. (2002) Testosterone, sexuality and antisocial personality in rapists and child molesters a pilot study.Psychiatry research110 (3), 239-247. Bartol, C. R. , & Bartol, A. M. (2008). Criminal behaviour a psychosocial approach, 8th Ed. Pearson Education. Chapter 12 & 13. Blumenthal, S. , Gudjonsson, G. and Burns, J. (1999) Cognitive distortions and blame attribution in sex offenders against adults and children. Child abuse & neglect23 (2), 129-143. Giotakos, O. , Markianos, M. , Vaidakis, N. and Christodoulou, G. N. (2004) Sex hormones and biogenic amine turnover of sex offenders in relation to their constitution and character dimensions. Psychiatry research127 (3), 185-193. Howitt, D. (2002).Forensic and criminal psychology. Prentice Hall Pearson. Chapter 9 & 10 Jespersen, A. F. , Lalumiere, M. L. and Seto, M. C. (2009) Sexual abuse history among adult sex offenders and non-sex offenders A meta-analysis. Child abuse & neglect33 (3), 179-192. Johnson, J. L (2006), Sex offenders on federal union supervision Factors that influence revocation. Federal probation a journal of correctional school of thought and practice 70 (1). Milner, R. J. , & Webster, S. D. (2005). Identifying Schemas in Child Molesters, Rapists and Violent Offenders. Sexual execration A Journal of Research and Treatment, 17, 425 439.Robertiello, G. and Terry, K. J. (2007) Can we profile sex offenders? A review of sex offender typologies. Aggression and Violent Behavior 12 (5), 508-518. Stinson, J. D. , Becker, J. V. and Tromp, S. (2005) A preliminary study on findings of psychopathy and affective disorders in adult sex offenders. International journal of law and psychiatry28 (6), 637-649. Taft, B. , Wilkinson, R. A. , Stickrath, T. J. (2001) Profile of ODRC sex offenders assessed at sex offender risk reduction center. Journal of rehabilitation and correction (1) www. womenscenter. virginia. edu/sdvs/assault/definition