Crimes and sentences in individuals with intellectual disability in a forensic psychiatric context: a register-based study

Aims To study associations between intellectual disability (ID) and sexual and violent offending among individuals subject to pre-trial forensic psychiatric assessment. To investigate sentences following pre-trial forensic psychiatric assessment in offenders with and without ID. Methods A population-based observational study using data from pre-trial forensic psychiatric assessments in Sweden (1997–2013), the Swedish National Crime Register and several other Swedish national registers. The study population consisted of 7450 offenders (87% men, 13% women) who were subject to forensic psychiatric assessment in 1997–2013, of whom 481 (6.5%) were clinically assessed as having ID. Results ID offenders were more likely than non-ID offenders to have a sexual crime as an index crime [26.2 v. 11.5%, adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.02–3.58] as well as previous convictions regarding sexual offending (10.4 v. 5.6%, adj OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.70–3.12). These associations were restricted to male offenders; sexual offending was uncommon among women. Comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder reduced the association between ID and sexual offending (adj OR 2.7 v. 3.1, p = 0.017), while comorbid autism spectrum disorder had no significant influence on the association (adj OR 2.7 v. 3.0, p = 0.059). Violent crime was equally common among ID and non-ID offenders. Offenders with ID were more likely than non-ID offenders to be sentenced to forensic psychiatric care or community sanctions and measures (such as probation, conditional sentences or fines) than to prison; however, 15% of individuals who received an ID diagnosis during the forensic psychiatric assessment were sentenced to prison. Previous criminal convictions, concurrent antisocial personality disorders and substance use disorders were associated with a higher probability of a prison sentence among offenders with ID. Conclusions Sexual crime is overrepresented among offenders with ID compared to offenders with other mental disorders than ID in forensic psychiatric contexts. ID offenders become subject to forensic psychiatric care and forensic psychiatric services need evidence-based treatment programmes for offenders with ID. In addition, there is a need for early intervention strategies suitable for disability services and special education schools, in order to address the complex needs of individuals with ID and prevent sexual and violent offending.

Conditional Consent and Sexual Crime: Time for Reform?

Statistics published by the government in 2021 highlight serious problems in England and Wales with a drop in prosecutions of sexual crimes. Part of this issue is attributed to the complexities around sexual consent and public understanding of it. This article highlights a particular problem in the law around conditional consent. It shows that the law on conditional consent is completely incoherent, complicating efforts to increase public education on the matter. The law is also limited in its protection of sexual autonomy of victims, as well in its protection of victims against pregnancy. Critics of reform warn against overcriminalisation of rape, and against imposing morals on society. However, it is argued that given the current reality of how rape is dealt with in England and Wales, these concerns should not prevent reform to the law of conditional consent. The article ends by arguing that reform should be carried out to make the law on conditional consent more coherent and to take account of pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse.

Power Relations and Sexual Violence on the Campus

<p class="p1">Sexual violence on campus is a crime against humanity that is difficult to uncover because of professors’ power relations and domination over students. Power relations also manifest at the structural level so that sexual violence is often dismissed and silenced by the administrators. The campus environment’s hierarchy of status and positions makes sexual crime cases go on for years without any accountability. On the other hand, there are efforts such as the collective action of lecturers across faculties to protect victims from the perpetrators and bring the perpetrators to justice. This study describes the author’s experience in dealing with sexual violence on campus and using a reflexive approach in addressing sexual violence in Indonesia.</p>

Non-intimate Relationships and Psychopathic Interpersonal and Affective Deficits as Risk Factors for Criminal Career: A Comparison Between Sex Offenders and Other Offenders

Sex-offenders are at risk of criminal recidivism. For the treatment to be truly effective, it must be individualized. For this purpose, an accurate assessment should focus on criminological, psychological, and psychopathological features. The present study compared sex offenders with other offenders on historical experiences (i.e., problems with violence, anti-social behaviors, problems with personal relationships, problems with substance use, traumatic experiences, and parenting style). In addition, given the association between life events and psychopathy, we explored whether the relation between life events and crime type (sexual crime vs. other types of crime) might be moderated by psychopathy traits (interpersonal and affective deficits and antisocial behavior). Eighty-eight sex offenders (76% of whom child molesters) and 102 other offenders were included. The Historical, Clinical and Risk Management - 20 item Version 3 (HCR-20V3) and Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) were administered. The scores of the HCR-20V3 Historical scale items were computed to assess life events. The scores of the PCL-R factors, F1 Interpersonal affective deficits and F2 Antisocial behavior, were recorded. The presence of a history of problems with non-intimate relationships was the only significant risk factor for sexual crime compared with other crimes. Interpersonal and affective deficits provided an increased likelihood of being sex offenders as compared with other offenders when problems with non-intimate relationships were possibly/partially or certainly present.

Categorized and Mapping the Lexical Meaning that Describing Sexual Harassment (Obscenity/Lewd) Crimes in Malay Tabloid Press

The categorization of meanings against lexical items that have multiple meanings or that undergo an expansion of meaning often poses problems to language users. This is because language users are often confused and unsure of the true meaning of a lexical item based on the context of its use. Studies on lexical semantics have been extensively conducted but most of the studies conducted focus on the meaning of adjectives, idioms and verbs only. Studies linking word meaning to sexual crime using newspaper data are still considered new and still lacking in number. This study, which uses Prototype Theory, will utilize digital newspaper data, namely Harian Metro, which is expected to fill the existing gaps. This prototype theory is proven to help unravel the cognitive processes involved as the reader tries to understand the true meaning of the word meaning that describes this obscene sexual crime. This study also proves that the use of cognitive semantics by utilizing prototype theory as well as the concept of lexical mapping has helped the process of utterance comprehension take place. All these cognitive processes are used in helping the reader understand the true meaning of a word. This study proves that the lexical used to describe the obscene crime is easily understood by the reader but there are other features that can be used by the author to describe the obscene sexual crime. This aims to further facilitate the reader's understanding of obscene sexual crimes. Overall, the results of this study found that the lexical used is appropriate to the concept of the crime of obscenity.

Problem of Child Sexual Abuse and the Response of Judiciary: an Analytical Study

Child sexual abuse is a tragic reality of every society which has always been tried to hide. However, Child Sexual abuse is a social constriction and its definition and conceptualization are also socially constructed phenomena. Children are the most sensitive and delicate part of every family, society and Nation, hence the risk of their vulnerability are also very high. In such a situation, the increasing incident of sexual abuse against children is extremely frightening. The NCRB data released every year is also telling a similar horrifying picture. Whereas many cases occurring in homes remain unreported and unfortunately many children are forced to bear all pain of sexual abuse silently. Child sexual abuse is a very serious issue and should therefore be taken with utmost seriousness and sensitivity. considering the severity of problem in 2012, the POCSO Act was passed by parliament with the main objective of protection of children from various kind of sexual abuses and offence .In 2018 after a horrifying incident of khatua, in Jammu and Kashmir, some amendments were made in POCSO Act and IPC under which in some aggravated forms of sexual crime against children it has been added stringent provisions ranging from life imprisonment to death sentence. But all these legal remedies will prove to be completely useless. If our judicial system adopts the same criteria on such crimes as it does in others cases of sexual offences as seen in many judicial decisions. Majour Singh case, Mathura Rape case and Rahim Beg case are the few great example of injustice precedent. Keywords: child sexual abuse, sexual violence, molestation, criminal justice system, judiciary, protection of children, POCSO Act and IPC.

Pedophilia as a Legal Term (Criminal Pedophilia)

Introduction: in our opinion, special attention should be paid to the content of the terms “pedophilia” and “pedophile”, which are often found in the analysis of the legal literature, the reports of government officials, on the Internet, as well as in the content of the normative legal acts regulating the responsibility for committing sexual crimes against the category of victims of interest to us. To date, none of the legal sources operating within the territory of the Russian Federation does not contain the interpretation of the above terms, which fully reveals the specifics of the form of sexual deviation we are studying. The purpose of the study is to analyze the legislation of the Russian Federation regulating the responsibility for the commission of a crime that encroaches on the sexual freedom and sexual integrity of minors and juveniles, by persons suffering from a disorder of sexual preference in the form of pedophilia, as well as the medical and psychological sources containing information about the sexual deviation we are studying, to form the concept of the terms “pedophilia” and “pedophile” in the legal sphere. Methods: the statistical method, the methods of induction, analysis and synthesis are used. Results: the paper considers various definitions of the terms “pedophilia”, “pedophile”. The paper analyzes the affiliation of the previously mentioned term with any branch of scientific knowledge. Conclusions: as a result of the conducted research, the author formulated the concepts of the terms “criminal pedophilia” and “criminal pedophile”, whose use in the normative legal acts regulating the responsibility for committing crimes that infringe on the sexual freedom and sexual integrity of minors and juveniles, in our opinion, would contribute to the significant development of the system of combating sexual crime in relation to the category of citizens of interest to us.