Adolescent sexual offenders

Sexual offending by adolescents, and sexually harmful behaviour by younger children, are important in psychiatry because they may bring offenders and their victims to the attention of mental health professionals. There is no clear evidence that male victims of sexual abuse in childhood are at higher risk of becoming perpetrators in adult life than are non-victimized young people. However, a minority of adolescent sexual offenders will be re-convicted for sexual offences in adult life, which raises the possibility that cycles of sexually abusive behaviour repeat across generations. Clinical experience suggests that untreated adolescent sex offenders may go on to victimize other children, but we lack long-term follow-up studies. A government strategy is needed to coordinate policy, service provision and research for this group of children and young people. Service development has probably suffered because of concerns about ‘labelling’ children but these worries are exaggerated. Although the evidence is incomplete, clinical experience suggests that the balance of risks is firmly in favour of early referral and multidisciplinary treatment. Mental health professionals should work in this area only as part of a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency team that has child protection as its guiding principle.