When Kids Get Arrested: What Every Adult Should Know

20. When the Child Is Charged with a Sexual Offense

191 20 When the Child Is Charged with a Sexual Offense TOP TIPS 1. This is extremely serious. You must understand the longterm consequences before you agree to anything. 2. The child could face lifetime registration as a sex offender and civil commitment. 3. Make sure the child’s attorney has expertise in this area. Use the questions in this chapter to test the attorney’s knowledge. Joshua is fourteen. For the past year he has been in counseling at the local sex abuse counseling center, because he was sexually abused by a cousin over the course of two years when he was younger. His grandparents took him to counseling when they noticed changes in Joshua’s behavior at home and at school. Eventually, Joshua revealed to them what he had been through, and they wanted to get him help. The cousin had moved out of state and was never prosecuted. The counselor tells Joshua that he will get the most out of his therapy if he completely opens up. After a year of seeing his therapist three times a week, Joshua reveals that before he started therapy he touched the penis of his ten-year-old male cousin and cajoled the cousin to touch Joshua’s penis as well. Joshua said this happened one time and that it has not happened since. The therapist, believing himself a mandatory reporter, calls the police. Joshua is arrested for a second-degree sexual assault and faces lifetime registration as a sex offender. • • • Imagine your child’s picture on the Internet, listed on a sexual offender registry for the rest of his or her life. This is not science fiction. Of all the ways that juvenile law has become more punitive , this is one of most frightening. Today, a child who is adjudicated delinquent on certain types of sexual offenses could face lifetime registration requirements and civil commitment. It is absolutely critical that you understand the potential consequences of any plea deals, not just the consequences for today, but how the admission may impact your child’s future. A normal part of adolescents’ development is understanding their own sexuality. Adolescents are learning to think of themselves as sexual beings, to deal with sexual feelings, and to enjoy physical contact with others. Experimentation with these new feelings and sensations is normal. However, in some of the cases that come to juvenile court, it is difficult to distinguish between normal adolescent experimentation and criminal activity. For example, if a boy and a girl, both age twelve and a half, decide to engage in consensual sexual activity, and the law says that a child under the age of thirteen is incapable of consent, should the boy be charged with rape? Working with children charged with sexual offending is often complicated because children who are charged with sexual offenses are often victims themselves. Statistics reveal that 20 to 50 percent have a history of being physically abused and 40 to 80 percent have a history of being sexually abused. Frequently, children are charged with sexual offenses for acting out what has been done to them. FACT VERSUS FICTION People are afraid of sex offenders. People want to keep their children safe. Lawmakers get a lot of mileage out of supporting very harsh sexual offender laws. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about children charged with sex offenses. What is a sexual offense? 192 IMPORTANT ISSUES AND SPECIAL POPULATIONS There are huge variations in sexual offenses. Lower-level offenses include: • Indecent exposure (where a child exposes his or her genitals to another) • Indecent assault (a boy grabs a girl’s breast during science class or a girl rubs up against a boy in an elevator) • Consensual sex with someone who is a number of years younger, also known as statutory rape More serious offenses include: • Rape • Aggravated sexual assault SEXUAL OFFENSES 193 Common misconception Current evidence Juvenile sex offenders are similar in most ways to adult offenders. TABLE 20.1 Juvenile Sex Offending: Fact versus Fiction Juvenile sex offenders will become adult sex offenders. Studies suggest that the rates of sexual reoffense (5–14%) are substantially lower than the rates for other delinquent behavior (8–58%).1 The assumption that the majority of juvenile sex offenders will become adult sex offenders is not supported by current literature nor valid studies.2 Juvenile sex offenders should be placed in secure residential treatment facilities. Most juvenile...