Violent Juvenile Sex Offenders Compared with Violent Juvenile Nonsex Offenders: Explorative Findings From the Pittsburgh Youth Study

Only a limited number of studies have compared the psychosocial characteristics of juvenile sex offenders and nonsex offenders. The results of these studies have often been contradictory. Furthermore, studies in normal population groups are rare and most of those studies have been conducted in specific populations. This paper reports on the findings of a prospective, longitudinal study, the Pittsburgh Youth Study, in which violent male sex offenders (n = 39) were compared with violent nonsex offenders (n = 430) based on 66 demographic and psychosocial characteristics. The findings show that the sex offenders resembled the nonsex violent offenders with respect to nearly all child, family, peer and demographic risk factors. Some suggestions are made with regard to future research.