Minors as offenders in sexual crimes

Sexual abusers at an early age

When it comes to sexual abusers at an early age, we are dealing with a phenomenon that goes beyond social and criminal analysis. The early age of abusive sexual activity coincides with a typology which a given society should study with attention to find hidden psychological and criminal causes. A minor prone to developing sexuality in unnatural and abusive ways is a subject in whom a form of prior abuse should be sought, an exposure to an abusive phenomenon in his family and social environment.

Unfortunately, in our reality of recent years, proceedings against minors for sexual crimes, even serious ones, have been seen. Although the number is limited if a comparison is made of the ratio of juvenile offenders to adult offenders for the group of criminal offences that are sexual crimes, the ratio ranges from 8-10%. This is very high if we compare it with theft and robbery, the crime with the highest number of juvenile offenders, which has a ratio of up to 7%.

Since the number of juveniles perpetrating sexual crimes is rather small, up to now no specific study on this phenomenon has been undertaken. Even in those few reports of a statistical nature, no importance was paid to that indicator. But it would have been of great interest to study, even with a case study, the cause that makes a minor demonstrate abusive sexual behaviour, treatment with the aim of the minor’s rehabilitation and an investigation of any possible links of the prosecuted crime with any previous unsolved crime.

Sexual crime as a “chain” effect

In a case of abuse within the family, the investigations of an expert should extend to the context of the members of the family context and, where possible, to the social context of the minor. This should also happen in a case where a juvenile is prosecuted for violent behaviour of a sexual nature. This is a result of psychoanalytic theory supported by research and criminological studies, which have confirmed that a minor subject to severe criminal action in childhood (unresolved) is prone to adopt this model and to display it in the stage of early maturity.
If a juvenile sexual offender manages to prove in court that he had previously been a victim of sexual abuse in the family or the environment where he grew up, this constitutes a mitigating circumstance with respect to his sentence. Often the “chain” effect with regard to crimes of this category has led to the investigation of serious cases of heinous crimes committed in a continuous and victimizing manner. A series of abuses of a single perpetrator have "produced" victims who while growing up have sometimes shown a suicidal model and sometimes a copy of the abuser’s model. In our country, this kind of theory of a “chain” crime or a crime "epidemic" has not been studied and does not constitute any indicator of an extensive investigation of a crime by juvenile or young offenders.
But a sexual crime that has been reported or brought to light constitutes a crime which requires a little more extensive investigation. Since it is an entirely individual crime, it would be advisable for the offender’s past and the background of the possible action to be developed together with the proceeding. For this, an expert in sexual crime is required. In order to ensure the best possible objectivity of the investigation, the expert must determine and explain the different hypotheses and possible alternatives based on the examination of the case. Thus, if in a given geographical area two perpetrators of a serious sexual crime act simultaneously, displaying the same characteristics of action and being of the same age, the natural question which arises is whether there is a possible link between them.

The volume of sexual crimes with juvenile offenders

Determining the trend of growth in the number of crimes with juvenile offenders for a group of criminal offences is always associated with negative expectations about the criminal phenomenon. According to statistics published by the Ministry of Justice on cases with juvenile offenders, the highest number of juveniles turn out to have committed crimes against property. In addition, minors are also involved in physical crimes, often in social and school environments.
Juvenile sex offenders are prosecuted for the criminal offences provided by the Criminal Code: Article 100/1- Sexual or homosexual relations with sexually immature minors :in total for 2002-2006 six offenders were convicted. Under Article 100/2- Sexual or homosexual relations with sexually immature minors in aggravating circumstances, only one case was prosecuted in five years. Moreover, four juvenile sex crime offenders were convicted in five years on the basis of Article 101- Sexual or homosexual relations by force with a minor who is 14-18 years old, and seven juvenile offenders were convicted under Article 108 – Immoral acts.
In total, in the course of the period studied, period there were 18 cases of sexual crimes with juvenile offenders.
 

^{Comments and analysis: Open Data Albania}

Sexual crime as behaviour after childhood trauma. Rehabilitation

Sigmund Freud's theory treats childhood trauma as incurable, leaving wounds that cannot be corrected and which provoke, when the child is grown, a multiplicity of phenomena with an emotional and social charge and abnormal behaviour. This non-categorical conclusion is, however, a definition that should emphasize how essential it is to bring to light events with a sexual background affecting minors and to shape crime policy for the rehabilitation of victims. Taking into consideration the fact that many juveniles are perpetrators of offences with a sexual background, these cases would be appropriate models for research, investigation and verification about the person’s possible past as "once a victim, now an offender."
To rehabilitate juvenile offenders who exhibit characteristics of behaviour as behaviour of post-childhood trauma, special attention is needed. These offenders cannot be rehabilitated only by imprisonment for the criminal offence and general rehabilitation programmes. Long-term treatment is required through psycho-rehabilitation and, inter alia, it is necessary for their behaviour to be observed in the social aspect, to prevent the evolution of the phenomenon through abusive activity in the future.

Contributer: Aranita Brahaj

Translated by: Alba Jorganxhi MA