Search Results (46)

HIV rates among young adults remain high, and those impacted by the justice system are at particular risk. Understanding the factors associated with HIV testing, as well as determining changes in risk behavior after an HIV test, may inform interventions to reduce HIV prevalence among this population. As such, this study sought to determine the individual, contextual, and demographic factors associated with HIV testing among legal-system-impacted young adults and to explore whether a first HIV test is associated with changes in future risk behavior when compared to Never Tested individuals. Significant predictors of HIV testing included the absence of a biological father (OR = 0.68, p = 0.049), a higher variety of lifetime offending (OR = 4.74, p = 0.015), and living in Philadelphia vs. Phoenix (OR = 3.07, p < 0.001). Compared to those never tested for HIV, those newly tested significantly increased in their number of unprotected sexual partners (b = 0.52, p < 0.001) and in the number of times they had unprotected sex (b = 0.47, p < 0.001) one year later. This study is one of the first to assess predictors of HIV testing among legal-system-impacted young adults living across both community and carceral settings and to assess changes in risk behavior before and after a first HIV test. Future studies should investigate changes in risk behavior among those newly tested to inform HIV testing and care improvement interventions for this population. Full article

The criminological approach to relapse is based, on the one hand, on the theories that explain the risk of relapse, including the risk level assessment tools, and on the other hand, on the rehabilitation theories—the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) Model and The Good Live Model (GLM), which explain the mechanisms of reducing the risk of relapse in the assisted desistance paradigm. The objectives of this study focus on identifying the predictors of relapse in correlation with relapse inhibitors that combine a number of personal, psycho-emotional factors with psychopathological, socio-economic, and cultural accents. The method used is that of the case study from the perspective of clinical criminology, referring to forensic psychiatry through specific techniques and working procedures of some institutions in the correctional system—territorial structures of probation (TSP) in cooperation with the penitentiary system. The results of the study focus on the impact of standardized programs on the reduction in the risk of relapse after prison (RRR) and on personal and socio-familial factors involved in post-executional surveillance and post-criminal assistance. In conclusion, the current study highlights the need to corroborate the clinical or subjective assessment of relapse risk with the actual or objective assessment, which also includes the risk of violence in the framework of community monitoring from the perspective of community or social psychiatry. Full article

The tenets and philosophies of the Igbo traditional religion (ATR) form the bedrock of the Igbo traditional and sociocultural belief system whose principles and practices directly and indirectly influence the perceptions and way of life of the Igbo society. These traditional and sociocultural beliefs are practiced in a way that promotes patriarchy, reducing the women to second-class citizens, and often making room for gender-based violence (GBV) against the women. This study is designed to establish the prevalence, forms, effects, and causes of GBV using results from empirical data. A total of 369 women, selected from 12 villages in Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria, via single-stage adaptive cluster sampling, were involved in the study. The data were analyzed using means, frequencies, and percentages. This study identified a high presence of all forms of physical, sexual, emotional, and economic violence, as well as violence through harmful traditional religious and widowhood practices. More than 70.0% of physical, sexual, emotional, and economic acts of GBV were perpetrated mainly by intimate partners (husbands and/or boyfriends). There was little evidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in all the forms of harmful traditional and widowhood practices. Rather, traditional and widowhood acts of violence against women are mainly perpetrated by the female peer group (Umuada), family members, and their husbands’ kinsmen (umunna). This study recommends effective outlets for victims to speak out and an action-oriented legal system to bring offenders to justice. Full article

Few things can potentially divide (and are dividing) Christians like the LGBTIQ+ issue. Conservative churches argue that sexuality forms an integral part of the human being and, hence, that sexual sin falls in a category of its own in any catalogue of sins. It is sin committed in the human body that radically affects one’s participation in Christ’s earthly body. To act on the realisation of same-sex lust is in itself sinful. Same-sex practices are viewed as sexual sin and all practitioners are condemned. On the other hand, there are Christians who accept that a homosexual orientation can be a biological given that needs to be accepted but that God views homosexual practice as an evil that should be avoided at all costs. Then there are also Christians who accept that a homosexual orientation is integral to some people’s humanity and accept same-sex behaviour as a regular expression of sexuality. Romans 1 plays a key role in the church’s discussion of the issue. The article reconsiders the textual evidence, using an exegetical model based on the historical–critical method combined with biblical theology. The conclusion is that Romans 1:24–29 refers to same-sex behaviour within the context of the Gentile world of idolatry that engages in wilful transgression of God’s bounds, resulting in degeneration in the lives of offenders. Full article

Background/Objectives: Studies on executive functions in child sex offenders relate their findings to the presence of pedophilia, but they are not able to distinguish between paraphilia and abuse. It is therefore this lack of a distinction that leads us to complement the existing information. Thus, the purpose of this review is to find all available evidence on the neurocognitive and neuroanatomical differences in executive functions among pedophilic and non-pedophilic child sex offenders, and non-offender pedophiles. Methods: The present review, in accordance with the PRISMA statement, ran a systematic search of three databases (Web of Science, Scopus and ProQuest). This search identified 5697 potential articles, but only 16 studies met all the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies were conducted in Europe, using a cross-sectional design with a convenience sample. Results: The results showed alterations in frontal, temporal and parietal structures related to executive functions (e.g., response inhibition) in child sexual offenders, regardless of the presence of pedophilia. Conclusions: In summary, there are differences in brain structure underlying executive functions related to child sexual abuse, but not to pedophilia as such. Full article

Offenders convicted of trafficking human beings for sexual exploitation involve a high percentage of women compared to other similar offenses. Previous studies have searched for explanations for the dynamics of the illegal sex market and the coercion experienced by victims during the process of exploitation and exit. This article analyses the content of 58 judicial decisions involving a sample of 148 women convicted in Spain of trafficking in human beings between 2017 and 2024. Two main dimensions are explored: the criminal organizations performing the sexual exploitation phase in Spain and the characteristics, positions, and roles of women traffickers within the criminal organizations. Half of the sample occupies leadership roles, while the other half consists of supporters, especially in larger trafficking networks. Regarding the positions and roles of women offenders, supporters and partners in crime are at higher risk of being coerced due to the nature of their roles or partnerships. Full article

Intimate partner violence (IPV) consists of any action that holds the intention to inflict physical, sexual and/or psychological damages to the offending person’s partner. This study aims to identify the psychopathological symptoms in IPV offenders and victims. Our sample consisted of 59 offenders and 63 IPV victims for whom the assessment was requested by a court order. The information on the evaluation was obtained through the database of the Forensic Psychology Office—Egas Moniz. The results show significative differences in five of the nine symptom dimensions, namely somatization, obsessive-compulsive, anxiety, phobic anxiety, and psychoticism, and victims have a complex presentation of symptoms. The impact of victimization is revealed in the negative repercussions at the level of global functioning in IPV victims rather than in IPV offenders. Full article

This paper presents and critically interrogates a comprehensive 7Ps framework for analysing and addressing gender-based violence. It takes the UN and the Council of Europe’s models as points of departure and develops the framework beyond the current state of the art, explains its different components, and offers reflections on its use in the practice of gender-based violence research. The UN 3P model, encompassing prevention, protection, and prosecution, later developed by the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention into a 4P model, comprising prevention, protection, prosecution, and integrated policies, has since been revisited, elaborated upon, and expanded in work focusing on gender-based violence in particular domains, such as female genital mutilation or gender-based violence in sport. To study gender-based violence in academia, the comprehensive 7Ps analytical framework has been deployed to interrogate the policies in place at national and institutional levels, including sexual harassment. Based on empirical data and conceptual analysis in the EU project UniSAFE: Gender-based violence and institutional responses: Building a knowledge base and operational tools to make universities and research organisations safe (2021–2024), the paper argues that the refined 7Ps model, comprising Prevalence, Prevention, Protection, Prosecution of offenders (and disciplinary measures), Provision of services, Partnerships between actors, and Policies specifically addressing the issue, allows for a more encompassing approach, in turn allowing a more fine-grained understanding of variations and explanations for success (or lack thereof) in terms of outcomes. Full article

In this article, we examine our current understanding of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the intersection of mental health challenges and substance use on sexual and non-sexual recidivism. This study uses administrative data and comprehensive case files of a sample of 626 individuals who were incarcerated for a sexual offense. Each case was standardized to a 10-year post-release follow-up time for criminal history review. Findings reveal that ACEs, mental health challenges, and substance use disorder, along with a variety of other factors, affect the pathway to re-offending differently. Interestingly, despite the recent legislative push to utilize one standardized predictor of risk, individuals who commit sexual offenses (ICSOs) had very different re-offending patterns based on historic life events. This research will inform the current legislative debate by providing relevant empirical data on a large sample of ICSOs followed for a substantial period of time. Full article

Objective: The research aims to investigate family communication regarding sexuality and the possible link between insecure attachment, violence in relationships, and the tendency toward sexual sensation-seeking in a sample of Italian sexual offenders. Design and method: We evaluated 29 male sexual offenders in two correctional facilities of Southern Lazio (Italy) (mean age = 40.76; SD = 11.16). The participants completed general questions about their family and sexual education and fulfilled the following questionnaires: Compulsive Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI), Sexual Sensation-seeking Scale (SSSS), and the High-Risk Situation Checklist, adapted in Italian, as well as the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), validated in Italian. Results: Most of the participants had never talked about sex within their family and perceived a severe or abusive education during childhood. In addition, positive correlations emerged between SSSS and the two scales of the CSBI, as well as between insecure attachment style, CSBI, and sexual sensation-seeking. The participants also reported some critical issues regarding the personal perception of high-risk situations linked to sexual relapse. Conclusions: The data suggest factors to investigate, such as family education and relationships and the personal perception of sexual recidivism. The results might be effective in treatment and prevention programs among sex offenders. Full article

Violence reduction is a United Nations (UN) sustainable development goal (SDG) and is key to both public health and criminology. The collaboration between these fields has the potential to create and improve prevention strategies but has been hampered by the usage of different definitions and measurements. This paper explores the definitions and measurements of violence by the World Health Organization, UN, and Council of Europe to arrive at a harmonized framework aligned with the SDGs. Violence and abuse are defined by these organizations as intentional actions that (are likely to) lead to harm, irrespective of physicality or legality. When recording violence and abuse, health- and justice-based administrative systems use different codes which cannot directly be translated without resorting to broad overarching categories. Additionally, the identification of the number of victims, perpetrators, and events is challenging in these systems due to repeat victimization/offending, multiple victims/perpetrators, and multiple engagements with services associated with a single event. Furthermore, additional information on the victims (e.g., ethnicity) and events needs to be registered to evaluate progress toward the SDGs. We propose a framework to record violence that includes individual and event identifiers, forms of violence and abuse (including physical, sexual, and psychological), harm, and individual and event characteristics. Full article

The problem of child sexual abuse (CSA) is a crucial point of entry into abolition-feminist conversations about justice and punishment, healing and repair. The popular belief that the “child sex offender” is uniquely irredeemable, eternally depraved and dangerous can trouble abolition-feminist efforts to address the devastating harm of CSA without reproducing the violence of prison and punishment. It also forces us to return to the question of “what to do with the dangerous few?” A familiar “tough on crime” refrain, this question mystifies the social, economic, and political conditions that nurture interpersonal violence. It also illustrates how centering our attention on “the monster in our midst” feeds an attachment to the mistaken belief that sexual harm is locatable in individual, bad people; that it is fixable by criminal law, and, in short, that justice and repair can be measured by the number of years one is sentenced to live behind bars. Miguel Piñero’s 1972 play “Short Eyes” exposes the failure of our attempts to incarcerate our way out of child sexual abuse and opens a literary-artistic space in which to explore the roots of violence and the abuse of power. The play dramatizes the particular ways in which the incarceration of those deemed the worst of the worst does not alleviate suffering or promote safety; rather, it prevents us from getting to the root of even the most horrific forms of abuse and from fully engaging, confronting and, finally, interrupting the daily, quotidian acts of sexual violence that are hiding in plain sight. Full article

Limited information is available on the prevalence and nature of sexual offending in Hong Kong. This cross-sectional study seeks to explore the role of risky sexual behavior (RSB) and paraphilic interests in self-reported sexual offending behavior (i.e., nonpenetrative-only, penetrative-only, and nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault) in a community sample of young adults in Hong Kong. Using a large sample (N = 1885) of university students, the lifetime prevalence of self-reported sexual offending was 18% (n = 342; 23% males (n = 166), 15% females (n = 176)). Based on the study subsample of 342 participants who self-reported sexual offending (aged 18–35), the findings indicated that males reported significantly higher levels of general, penetrative-only, nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault; and paraphilic interest in voyeurism, frotteurism, biastophilia, scatophilia, and hebephilia than females; while females reported a significantly higher level of transvestic fetishism than males. No significant difference was found in RSB between males and females. Logistic regressions found that the participants who possessed a higher level of RSB, particularly penetrative behaviors, and paraphilic interest in voyeurism and zoophilia were less likely to engage in a nonpenetrative-only sexual offense. Conversely, the participants who possessed higher levels of RSB, especially penetrative behaviors, and paraphilic interest in exhibitionism and zoophilia, were more likely to engage in nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault. The implications for practice in areas such as public education and offender rehabilitation are discussed. Full article

Background: Infidelity is a relational process common in all types of romantic relationships and has been established as one of the main causes of relationship breakdown. However, little is known about this type of transgression in adolescent romantic relationships, although it manifests as a fairly frequent behavior involving different motivations. Even less is known about the emotional impact of infidelity on the offending person and its association with hostile behavior and psychological well-being. Methods: Through an experimental study (N = 301 Spanish adolescents (190 female and 111 male; M_age = 15.59, SD = 0.69; range from 15 to 17), we sought to analyze the effect of manipulating two types of motivations for infidelity (sexual vs. emotional dissatisfaction) on negative affect, hostility, and psychological well-being. Results: The main results revealed that committing infidelity motivated by hypothetical sexual (vs. emotional) dissatisfaction was indirectly related to lower psychological well-being through its effects on increased negative affect and hostility. Conclusions: Last but not least, we discuss these findings, highlighting the possible implications of infidelity for the psychosocial and psychosexual development of adolescents. Full article

Juveniles with problematic sexual behaviors are often placed in residential treatment. However, little is known about the effectiveness of such treatments in terms of reducing recidivism or enhancing mental wellbeing. To better understand the impact of residential treatment for these juveniles we conducted a Systematic Review on studies that reported recidivism rates. PRISMA guidelines were followed. 1126 studies were initially identified, with only six meeting the final inclusion criteria. Sexual recidivism rates averaged 5.20% across the six studies, which is similar rates of non-residential treatments. The results suggest that certain client factors predict recidivism, for example youth labeled as obsessive offenders were more likely to recidivate compared to those labeled as opportunistic. Most studies also measured non-sexual crimes post treatment; recidivism rates for sexual misconduct tended to be lower than for other crimes. Despite the significant intrusion of residential treatment centers, remarkably few empirical studies exist to establish their effectiveness in reducing recidivism. The comparable recidivism rates to non-residential treatment programs begs the question of whether residential centers add value beyond outpatient care and suggest that less restrictive interventions may be sufficient. Helping youth evidencing problematic sexual behaviors involves complex dynamics, however caution is recommended on relying on residential treatment. Full article