Families, Mental Health, and Delinquency: Testing Sexual Crime Typologies of Youth Who Sexually Harm

• Author: Adam Brown,Erin Gardner
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/15412040211073060
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice

2022, Vol. 20(3) 250–275

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/15412040211073060

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Families, Mental Health, and

Delinquency: Testing Sexual

Crime Typologies of Youth

Who Sexually Harm

Adam Brown

1

and Erin Gardner

2

Abstract

Researchers have made great strides in identifying risk factors associated with the commission of

sexual harm by youth. However, many of the risk factors associated with youth who sexually harm

(YSH) are also associated with nonsexual delinquency, making it hard to create typologies of YSH

to target prevention and treatment. To eliminate an overlap with nonsexually offending general

delinquents, Brown (2019) used latent class analysis to identify four unique classes of youth based

only on their sexual crime characteristics. A research implication of Brown’sf‌indings was to

explore the relationship of the classes to characteristics associated with sexual crime by youth to

identify targeted treatment implications and opportunities to prevent sexual crime. In this study,

the authors used chi-square analyses and logistic regression to test the relationships of mental

health, family factors, concurrent delinquency with the classes identif‌ied in Brown’s (2019) study

using the same sample (N= 573) used by Brown. Findings highlight the potential differing etiology

and treatment needs of YSH according to their offense characteristics. Treatment implications

and directions for future research are offered.

Keywords

families and delinquency, sexual abuse, typologies, youth sexual harm

Introduction

The commission of sexual harm can have long term detrimental consequences for those vic-

timized, the community, and those who have sexually harmed. Researchers and treatment

providers have long known that etiological investigations of youth who sexually harm (YSH) are

challenged by the fact that they are a heterogeneous group with many overlapping factors that can

1

Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA

2

School of Social Welfare, State University of New York at Albany, USA

Corresponding Author:

Adam Brown, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, City University of New York, 2180 3rd Avenue, New

York, NY 10035, USA.

Email: adam.brown@hunter.cuny.edu

potentially contribute to sexually harmful behavior (Brown et al., 2021;Fox & DeLisi, 2017;

McCuish et al., 2015). Specif‌ically, these youth have been found to encompass a variety of unique

personality traits, criminal behaviors, demographic traits, psychopathologies, and childhood

traumas (Brown et al., 2021;McCuish et al., 2015,2017).

Historically, individual risk factors have been used to best inform youth sexual offender

policies and practices. These factors often include hopelessness regarding sexual future (Brown &

Grady, 2019), poor awareness of healthy sexual relationships, and antisocial values and attitudes

(Hunter et al., 2003;Imbach et al., 2013;van Wijk et al., 2005). More recently, it has been

contended that, in addition to assessing individual factors, one must also consider the individual’s

familial, peer, and other social contexts (Alexander et al., 2021). Families of YSH have been found

to face multiple concurrent problems (Yoder & Brown, 2015). They are often made up of single-

parent structures that are female-headed (Ryan & Otonichar, 2016), characterized as having high

rates of neglect, and inadequate monitoring of children (Knight & Sims-Knight, 2004;Newman

et al., 2015;Widom & Massey, 2015). Additionally, families often show high levels of substance

abuse (Barbaree & Marshall, 2006;Murphy et al., 2016), adult criminality (Baker et al., 2003;

Felizzi, 2015;McCuish et al., 2015) and a lack of resources to cope with traumatic experiences

such as abuse and neglect (Bereiter & Mullen, 2012;Vizard et al., 2007). However, both in-

dividual and environmental factors have been found to occur concurrently, often leading to

diff‌iculties in designing a treatment approach that works for all YSH.

Typologies for Youth That Sexually Harm

Latent class analysis (LCA) is considered a person-centered and holistic approach to data analysis

for creating typologies. It allows for the identif‌ication of unmeasured class memberships using

observed variables (Vermunt & Magidson, 2004). Todate, few researchers have used this person-

centered approach to identify distinct categories that can be used to better understand YSH. Fox

and DeLisi (2017) showed four unique subtypes: non-disordered males, impulsive and un-

empathetic, early onset and chronic, and male victim offenders. Brown (2019) also found four

classes with some overlap to the Fox and DeLisi study: non-violent acts with child victims, female

peer victims only, male child focus, and an early starter with multiple victims. More recently,

Alexander and colleagues (2021) examined various sub-categories of poly-victimization among

YSH. They found a difference between trauma symptomology among youth with low poly-

victimization versus high poly-victimization.

These investigations have made potentially important contributions to the study of YSH

etiology by exploring new ways to classify YSH. Although the studies also leave us to

question where to go from here as it pertains to assessment and treatment. In other word s,h ow

might these classes relate to other factors known to be related to the commission of sexual

harm? Furthermore, given that one’s motivation to sexually harm may differ according to

sexual crime characteristics (Cale et al., 2016), it might be important to understand how

various contexts and sexual crime characteristics may differentially motivate YSH according

to other risk indicators.

Only one LCA of YSH to-date has identif‌ied classes of youth solely based upon immutable,

static, sexual crime characteristics (Brown, 2019). However, according to the Association for the

Treatment of Sexual Abusers practice guidelines for the treatment of adolescents, treatment should

focus on dynamic risk factors according to the context of the youths’lives. Therefore, to determine

the utility of a typology based upon sexual crime characteristics for treatment, it would be

important to see how the classes predict dynamic risk factors associated with the commission of

sexual harm.

Brown and Gardner 251