The prevalence of risk factors for general recidivism in female adolescent sexual offenders: a comparison of three subgroups.

To our knowledge, there are no former studies in which subgroups of female adolescent sexual offenders are studied. Therefore, we examined differences in risk factors for general recidivism between female adolescents who have committed a felony sexual offense against a younger child (CSO, n=25), female adolescents who have committed a felony sexual offense with a peer victim (PSO, n=15) and female adolescents who have committed a misdemeanor sexual offenses (MSO, n=31). Results showed that CSOs had considerably fewer problems in the domains of school (truancy, behavior problems, dropping out of school), family (e.g., parental alcohol problems, parental mental health problems, poor authority and control, out of home placements and run away from home) and friends (antisocial friends) than MSOs and/or PSOs. No differences were found in the prevalence of mental health problems, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.