Persecutor and victim in the juvenile sexual crimes

Abstract

In the existing literature on the Juvenile Sexual Offenders (JSO), there is a total eclipse of the victims and especially of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator. Work on JSOs is aimed at improving the understanding of the phenomenon, trying to identify those variables useful for diminishing heterogeneity. The victims, on the other hand, are considered solely and exclusively as a function of the offender or rather as one of the possible variables that can improve their classification, like personality characteristics, criminal history, and so on. The purpose of this article is to take into consideration the misconceived link between victim and perpetrator through three directions: the perpetrator as a victim; the perpetrator in the legal system; the perpetrator’s relationship with particular types of victims.