Juvenile Sex Offenders: What We Know and What We Need to Learn

Barbara J. Hayler, University of Illinois at Springfield

ABSTRACT
In recent years both the general public and the criminal justice community been increasingly concerned about issues of sexual assault and abuse and the problems posed by sex offenders. Yet most of what has been published about juvenile sex offenders is actually based on studies of adult offenders. The authors of this paper recently completed a review of studies of juvenile sex offenders, including an analysis of typologies or other frameworks for understanding juvenile sex offending behavior that have been proposed. This paper presents these findings, and identifies key areas where additional research is needed.

(Return to Program Resources)

Updated 05/20/2006