Department of Forensic Psychiatry, University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb, Croatia.
Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia.
J Forensic Sci. 2020 Nov;65(6):2042-2049. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.14511. Epub 2020 Jul 27.
Studies on differences between individuals convicted of sexual offences and nonsexual offences are sparse and there is an on-going debate as to whether sexual offenders differ from other offenders. The primary aim of this study was to determine demographic characteristics, prevalence of mental disorders, alcohol and drug use at the time of the crime and the criminal responsibility of individuals charged with sexual offences, compared to nonsexual crimes, with the aim of bringing awareness to the similarities and differences between men charged with sex offences and those charged with other crimes. This is a single-institution retrospective study of subjects charged with sexual offences and sent for institutional psychiatric evaluation to a Forensic Psychiatric Centre in an urban, academic, tertiary-care center. The control group consisted of individuals charged with nonsexual offences referred to the same center. Results showed significant differences between individuals charged with sexual offences and nonsexual offences. Men charged with sex offences more frequently committed their crimes alone and victimized children equally as often as adults. They also less frequently pleaded guilty in court. They were more likely to be abused in childhood and more often had antisocial personality disorder and paraphilias and less often substance-related disorders. The majority were considered criminally responsible. Our results show that sex offenders are different from nonsex offenders in many characteristics of their personal history, offence characteristics and forensic evaluations and these particular differences warrant different approaches to the prevention of future re-offending, compared to nonsex offenders.
关于性犯罪者和非性犯罪者之间差异的研究很少，对于性犯罪者是否与其他犯罪者不同，目前仍存在争议。本研究的主要目的是确定个体的人口统计学特征、犯罪时精神障碍、酒精和药物使用的患病率以及性犯罪和非性犯罪的刑事责任，旨在提高人们对性犯罪者和其他犯罪者之间相似和不同之处的认识。这是一项单机构回顾性研究，涉及被指控犯有性犯罪并被送往城市学术三级保健中心法医精神病评估中心进行机构评估的个体。对照组由被指控犯有非性犯罪并被转介到同一中心的个体组成。结果表明，性犯罪者和非性犯罪者之间存在显著差异。被指控犯有性犯罪的男性更频繁地单独犯罪，同样经常侵害儿童和成年人。他们在法庭上认罪的频率也较低。他们在童年时期更有可能受到虐待，更常患有反社会人格障碍和性癖好，而较少患有与物质相关的障碍。大多数人被认为具有刑事责任。我们的研究结果表明，性犯罪者在个人历史、犯罪特征和法医评估方面与非性犯罪者存在许多差异，这些特定差异需要与非性犯罪者不同的方法来预防未来的再犯罪。
