Criminal Careers in the Making? Characteristics and Trajectories of Juveniles Charged With a Sexual Offense

Abstract

The present study investigates the onset, persistence and diversity in sexual offending by exploring Norwegian registry data on the social and criminal trajectories of juveniles charged with a sexual crime before the age of criminal responsibility, compared to juveniles charged with other types of offenses. The sample consisted of all persons aged 15 during the period 1997–2005 (N = 388,814). Of those, 19,559 juveniles (5%) were charged with a crime, mostly (83%) of a non-violent nature. For the remaining 16.9% (n = 3,309), the charge involved violence, either non-sexual (n = 2,991, 15.3% of those charged) or sexual (n = 318, 1.6% of those charged). Proportional hazard models were used to investigate background characteristics and risk of recidivism. Early onset of offending was related to a more disadvantaged background. Juveniles charged with violent and sexual offenses were generally younger and had more charges against them than juveniles charged with any other crimes. Early sexual crime carried higher hazard rate (HR) of future sexual crime (HR = 3.6) than early violent (HR = 1.9) and other crimes (HR = 1.4). The risk of later violent crime was similar among those with early onset violent (HR = 2.8) and sexual (HR = 2.5) crime, and higher than for early onset general crime (HR = 1.7). Since violent crime has a higher base rate than sexual crime, violence is more dominant in the criminal careers of people with early onset sexual offending. However, the majority of adult sexual criminal charges are raised against persons without a juvenile criminal record.