Sexual predation characteristics
Sexual predation characteristics refer to the behavioral patterns and psychological traits of offenders who target nonconsenting individuals for sexual violence. These offenders often exhibit a compulsion for domination and control, acting out aggressive sexual fantasies that can escalate from coercive acts to severe violence, including murder. Typically, sexual predators are perceived as preying on vulnerable populations, such as women and children, and their motivations often include deriving sexual gratification from inflicting pain or suffering.
Research identifies two primary types of sexual predators: organized and disorganized. Organized predators carefully plan their crimes and typically display social adeptness, while disorganized predators act impulsively and often lack social skills. The offender demographic predominantly consists of males, with a noted history of troubled childhoods and potential substance abuse issues.
Legal classifications, such as "sexually violent predator," are assigned to certain offenders based on their criminal history and mental health evaluations. This classification can lead to extended incarceration in mental health facilities, even after serving prison sentences. Overall, understanding the characteristics of sexual predation is crucial for law enforcement and mental health professionals in effectively managing and preventing these crimes.
Subject Terms
Sexual predation characteristics
DEFINITION: Characteristics of criminal offenders who exhibit a pattern of pursuing nonconsenting persons for the purpose of acting out aggressive sexual fantasies that commonly include themes of domination, control, and revenge.
SIGNIFICANCE: The behaviors of sexual predators range along a continuum from coercive sexual acts, such as rape, to sadistic torture and homicide. These individuals prey on victims they perceive as weak and vulnerable, such as women and children. Law-enforcement investigations of cases involving sexual predators must take into account the compulsive and deep-seated nature of such offenders’ sexual urges and fantasies.
Sexual predators derive intense sexual pleasure from pursuing, overpowering, and forcing their victims to comply with their deviant fantasies. Sexually violent predators make up a subgroup of sexual offenders. These individuals engage in violent and sometimes deadly sexual activities with their victims. Over time, the severity of their deviant fantasies may escalate as these perpetrators require increasing degrees of control or victim suffering to achieve sexual gratification. Over the courses of their criminal careers, some sexual predators perfect their patterns so that they gain access to many victims while eluding capture by the authorities.
Sexually violent predators tend to share a number of characteristics. For example, research has found that many of these offenders have experienced severely troubled childhoods, often including verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Most are Caucasian males who typically began their offending in early to mid-adolescence, if not before, and have experienced problems with substance abuse.
The crimes of sexual predators are often motivated by the sexual gratification they receive from inflicting pain, mutilating, and displaying the bodies of their victims in sexually suggestive positions. These acts often lead to or involve the death of the victims; however, sexual stimulation, not murder, is the perpetrators’ primary goal. Victims may be sexually penetrated, but it is not uncommon for these offenders to use penetration with foreign objects in place of or in addition to penetration with penis or fingers. Sexual penetration does not always occur during such crimes, however; at times, this can make it difficult for investigators to determine that the crimes were sexually motivated.
Types of Sexual Predators
Research into sexual predation has identified two broad types of offenders, distinguished according to the offender’s level of social adjustment, the amount of planning that goes into each crime, and the offender’s behavior with the victims. Those classified as “organized” sexual predators consciously plan their crimes and choose their victims in order to have significant control. These offenders spend a considerable amount of time trying to conceal their crimes so that they avoid being caught and often travel significant distances to find their victims and commit their crimes. They are socially adept and able to function in intimate sexual relationships.
The sexual predators classified as “disorganized” are typically socially inadequate and engage in their crimes impulsively, typically in response to particular stressors. They are opportunistic, so they are not selective when choosing their victims and rarely expend much effort in concealing their crimes. Their behavior is often erratic or haphazard because of their lack of planning; if they need weapons, they are likely to use whatever weapon is available at the scenes of their crimes.
Research regarding sexual predation has typically focused on male sex offenders because perpetrators of violent crimes, particularly sexual crimes, are typically male adults. Female sex offenders do exist, however; for the most part, their offenses occur with children under the age of six. It has been suggested that the rate of sexual offending by women is higher than crime reports indicate because such crimes by women often go unreported or unnoticed owing to societal views on sexual offenses.
Managing Sexual Predators
“Sexually violent predator” is a legal term assigned to certain sex offenders. In most U.S. states, in order to be labeled a sexually violent predator, a person must be convicted of committing sexually violent acts on at least two victims. Additionally, the individual must be diagnosed with a mental disorder that places that person at risk of committing additional sexually violent acts. In some states, those convicted offenders who are labeled as sexually violent predators may be incarcerated in state mental facilities for some period of time after they have completed their court-mandated sentences in correctional facilities. forensic psychologists or psychiatrists then assess the mental status of such offenders and testify in court on the results of their assessments and on their opinions concerning the level of treatment the offenders should receive. All states are required to keep a register of sexual offenders and notify local jurisdictions if such an offender moves to that location.
Bibliography
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