Male Mentally Handicapped Sex Offenders
- 1 November 1994
- journal article
- Published by Royal College of Psychiatrists in The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Vol. 165 (5), 630-639
- https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.165.5.630
Abstract
Background: Sex offences are overrepresented in the mentally handicapped, but information about the characteristics and offence behaviour of this group is limited.Method: A retrospective case note survey was made of 47 male patients referred for antisocial sexual behaviour.Results: Of 191 offences and/or incidents committed, 55.5% were heterosexual, 24% indecent exposure, 12.4% homosexual, 13.6% serious and 3.6% involved physical assault. Average age of the offenders was 23.9 years, with a mean IQ of 59.5, and there was a high prevalence of family psychopathology, psychiatric illness, minor physical disabilities, sexual experience, impaired relationship skills and sexual recidivism. Recidivists showed a low specificity for offence type and age and sex of victim. Categorical analysis differentiated a ‘sex offences only’ group from a ‘sex plus other offences’ group in the key areas of psychopathology, offence behaviour and outcome; this was supported by factor analysis.Conclusion: The finding of two subgroups of mentally handicapped male sex offenders has important implications for prevention, assessment and treatment.Keywords
This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:
- Psychopathic Disordered, Mentally Ill, and Mentally Handicapped Sex Offenders: A Comparative StudyMedicine, Science and the Law, 1992
- Mentally Retarded Adolescent Sex Offenders. A Survey and Pilot StudyThe Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 1989
- Mentally Retarded Sex Offenders:Journal of Social Work & Human Sexuality, 1989
- A Hospital-Based Treatment Programme for Male Mentally Handicapped OffendersThe British Journal of Psychiatry, 1988
- Transvestites and TranssexualsPublished by Springer Nature ,1988
- Male Adolescent Sexual Offenders: The Offender and the OffenseThe Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 1986
- Motivation for corss‐dressing in heterosexual transvestismActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1978
- Pedophilia and ExhibitionismPublished by University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) ,1964
- Delinquent Types of Mentally Defective PersonsJournal of Mental Science, 1949