First Advisor

Keith Kaufman

Term of Graduation

Winter 2024

Date of Publication

3-14-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Psychology

Department

Psychology

Language

English

Subjects

ACE, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Juvenile Offender, Juvenile Sexual Offender, Trauma

DOI

10.15760/etd.3736

Physical Description

1 online resource (v, 79 pages)

Abstract

Approximately 1 in 5 girls and in 20 boys in the United States are victims of child sexual assault every year. Child sexual assault can lead to multiple negative short term and long-term impacts affecting general health, mental health, interpersonal relationships, socio-economic status, criminal behavior and more. Prevention research focuses on a thorough understanding of the perpetrators of assault and the context surrounding offenses in order to reduce and prevent assault. Within this research, juvenile offenders are perceived as a single homogenous group whereas adult offenders are consistently specified based on offender and offense characteristics. The exploration of the relationship between juvenile offenders' Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the characteristics of juvenile sexual offence can impact the research, practice and policy meant to prevent future assault from occurring. This study investigated the relationship between ACEs and juvenile offender typology, non-sexual offence and sexual offense, using data collected from The Oregon Youth Authority. The study was conducted using a modified version of the ACEs measure that includes four community level ACEs items. Prominent findings included that, juvenile sexual offenders were more likely to have experienced emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and peer rejection while juvenile nonsexual offenders were more likely to experience divorce, criminal institutionalization of a family member, and community violence.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41770

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS