Characteristics of adolescent sexual offenders and their victims: a study of judicial processes

Abstract

Sexual violence practiced by adolescents is poorly
studied in Brazil. It is essential to know these
subjects to understand the phenomenon and to
develop preventive actions. This article presents
characteristics of adolescent sexual offenders,
as well as their victims and the context of the
offense. To this, 254 lawsuits were analyzed,
between 2013 and 2016, in Federal District,
involving 285 offenders and 291 victims. From
the information collected, a descriptive table was
elaborated, whose analysis was carried out in a
contextualized manner and with reference to other
important studies in the area. The results pointed
to the diversity of adolescent sexual offenders,
but information about families were scarce in the
lawsuits. Most of them committed the offense with
16/17 years old (41.4%) and were in Middle School
equivalent — 6th to 8th grade (29.5%). A significant
number of adolescents had previous involvement
with the courts (24.2%). The abuses were primarily
extrafamilial (48.5%), with female victims (67.7%),
between 10 and 14 years old (40.5%) and known to
the offender (92.2%). The complexity of the cases
is highlighted, making standardized interventions impossible, as well as the importance of knowing
the social context of adolescents and their family
relationships to more assertive interventions.