Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. NCJ Number. Author s. Franklin E. Zimring ; Alex R. Piquero ; Wesley G. Date Published. Data from three birth cohorts in Racine, WI were examined to determine patterns of juvenile to adult sex offending and the implications of the findings for current sex-offender public policy. The study found that whether a juvenile male in Racine had a police contact because of a sex offense did not predict his sex offending as an adult; 8.
The best predictor for a juvenile committing a sex offense as an adult was the frequency of general offending whether sexual or nonsexual as a juvenile. These findings suggest that the registration and monitoring of any juvenile who commits a sex offense will miss more than 90 percent of the cohort members who will commit sex crimes as adults and will mistakenly identify many juveniles as at high risk for adult sex offending.
Interventions should focus on habitual juvenile offenders, regardless of whether or not they commit sex offenses. Data were obtained from the Racine longitudinal study conducted by Lyle Shannon , , which involved three cohorts of youth born in , , and A total of just over 6, boys and girls composed the 3 cohorts. The Racine researchers did not record the specific charge for sex offenses, but noted whether the offense warranting police contact was a felony or misdemeanor.
The current study obtained data on the type and frequency of police contacts as well as the date, location, and contact number. Juvenile and adult police contact information came from the files of the Juvenile Bureau and the Records Division of the Racine Police Department. Additional Details Publication Format.
Publication Type. United States of America. Downloads No download available. Availability Find in a Library. Related Topics Criminality prediction Juvenile sex offenders Juvenile to adult criminal careers Longitudinal studies Sex offender registration.
