Abstract
Purpose: This study examined the differences between inpatient and outpatient treated juveniles who had committed sexual offenses (JSOs) on traits, behaviors, and attitudes that are critical for risk assessment and treatment. The study attempted (a) to provide information about decisions to send JSOs to inpatient detention centers, which carry serious consequences and possible risks, and (b) to contribute data about understudied outpatient JSOs.
Method: Multidimensional Inventory of Development, Sex, and Aggression (MIDSA) scales were analyzed for a sample of 297 inpatient JSOs, 246 clinical outpatient JSOs, and 30 experimentally tested JSOs. To identify critical group differences we calculated MANOVAs of important overarching risk domains and followed, when significant, with ANOVAs and post-hoc Scheffé’s multiple comparisons to specify important group differences.
Results: Inpatient JSOs scored significantly higher than outpatient JSOs on 31 scales, and no differences were evidenced among the JSO groups on 6 scales.
Conclusion: Inpatient JSOs overall scored higher than did outpatient JSOs in the risk domains assessed, with the exceptions of attitudes about masculinity and social relationships with women. One possible implication is that these scoring patterns identified the critical domains for clinicians making dispositional decisions about treatment requirements for JSOs. It is also possible that some these differences might result from the type of JSO treatment.