Senior Practitioner Seminar Series – 8 February 2019

1. Conceptualising appropriate, inappropriate and illegal socio-sexual behaviours in young people with a disability • Senior Practitioner Seminar Series – 8 February 2019 • Frank Lambrick, Senior Practitioner – Disability, DHHS, Victoria • Douglas Boer, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Canberra

2. What is known about young sexual offenders with an ID? • Not a lot of research! • The usual complications - definitional problems etc. • Tend to be over represented in samples of adolescent sexual offenders (Fyson, 2007, Lindsay et al., 2002): • Level of supervision; • Naivety about admitting sexual activity; • Lack of sexual education; • Lack of opportunity; • Less sophisticated at covering up their activities; • Unaware that what they did was wrong Thompson & Brown (1997)

3. What is known about young sexual offenders with an ID … cont. • Adolescent sexual offenders with an ID tend to be: • More opportunistic; • Less discriminating in their choice of victim; • Less likely to involve planning in their sexual offences; • Greater external locus of control; • Less preferable in terms of age and sex – more impulsive and opportunistic. (O’Callaghan, 1999; Langevin & Curnoe, 2008; Rose et al., 2002; Thompson & Brown, 1997). Where does vulnerability (victim-related) lie in all of this? Do social skills deficits limit this group’s ability to engage in peer interactions? What about this concept of psychosocial pairing with children of a similar developmental age?

4. Young sexual offenders with an ID - considerations • Developmental context; • The family context (including; • Socio-sexual knowledge and skills – counterfeit deviance hypothesis (Demetral, 1993); • Opportunity for prevention (Hudson et al., 1999): • Primary – broad scale but also focused on children / adolescents at risk – angling at the “inappropriate end”; • Secondary – early identification of the problem and intervening to prevent further escalation - at the inappropriate end but getting more serious – displaying inappropriate sexual behaviour for their age and circumstances; • Tertiary – treating established problem behaviour – treatment program involvement – what is available?

5. Young sexual offenders with an ID – a useful framework (Ryan, 1991) • The concept of a “flag” system: • Conceptualisation of behaviours occurring on a continuum from normal to abusive. • “Flags” denote the level of severity of behaviour: • Yellow flags – behaviours which are of a concern and may be viewed as warning signs but are not abusive; • Red flags – behaviours which are abusive and potentially illegal sexual behaviours; • Black flags – behaviours which are clearly illegal. • This continuum differs according to the age of the child or adolescent • (from: Ryan, G. (1991). Juvenile sex offenders: defining the population. In G. Ryan & S. Lane (Eds.), Juvenile Sexual Offending; Causes, Consequences, and Correction ( pp. 3 – 9). Lexington, KY: Lexington Books.)

6. Young sexual offenders with an ID – a useful framework (Ryan, 1991) cont.

7. Young sexual offenders with an ID – a useful framework (Ryan, 1991) cont.

8. Young sexual offenders with an ID – a useful framework (Ryan, 1991) cont.

9. Young sexual offenders with an ID – a useful framework (Ryan, 1991) cont.