Offense history and recidivism in three victim-age-based groups of juvenile sex offenders

This study compared subgroups of juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) who victimized children (child offenders), peers (peer offenders), or both children and peers (mixed offenders) on sexual and nonsexual offense history, treatment outcomes, and recidivism to determine if these are distinct and valid subgroups. Though the group of mixed offenders was small, results showed that they exhibited a more diverse and more physically intrusive sexual offense history than the other JSOs and were less likely to successfully complete treatment. Sexual and nonsexual recidivism rates of mixed offenders did not differ from the other subgroups despite subgroup differences in juvenile sexual and nonsexual criminal records. However, differences in sexual recidivism rates of child versus peer offenders were found when the mixed offenders were either excluded from the sample or combined with child offenders. The results highlight the need to include mixed offenders in future research examining the etiology of sexual offending, treatment, and recidivism of JSOs.