Sex Offenders and Self-Control: Explaining Sexual Violence (Criminal Justice)

Cleary studied non-sex offenders, in-treatment sex offenders, and never-treated sex offenders to determine whether their behavior reflected the General Theory of Crime. She explored the link between abusive parenting and criminal history and analogous behaviors and opportunity and routine activities in victim selection. Data showed moderate support for the self-control assertion that offenders do not specialize and high support for the generality of deviance. Although in-treatment sex offenders differed in self-control, mixed results were found for the relationship between low self-control and analogous and criminal behaviors among all three groups. Interviews supported the role of opportunity in victim selection; respondents used victims' physical proximity and/or emotional availability to gain access to them.