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Juvenile Sexual Offending

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender

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Synonyms

Adolescent sex offenders; Juveniles who sexually offend; Sexually offending juveniles

Definition

Juveniles who sexually offend (JWSO) are youth who have committed a chargeable sexual offense. In developmental terms, JWSO are believed to be mature enough to be held responsible for their actions (i.e., they have reached an age where they are no longer considered children), but they are not held accountable to the same extent as adults (Barbaree & Marshall, 2006). The exact acts that constitute sexual offenses and ages at which offenders are considered juveniles (versus children or adults) vary within and across national contexts.

Introduction

Although juveniles have committed sexual offenses throughout history, contemporary society has been marked by an elevated interest in, and fear of, JWSO. In an analysis of books published since the early 1900s and digitized by Google Books, Harris and Socia (2016) found that usage of the term “juvenile sex offender” exhibited two small...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Heather Hensman Kettrey

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  1. Heather Hensman Kettrey
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Correspondence to Heather Hensman Kettrey .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of New England Department of Psychology, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Amy D. Lykins

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Hensman Kettrey, H. (2020). Juvenile Sexual Offending. In: Lykins, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59531-3_30-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59531-3_30-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59531-3

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