Adolescent sexual abuse: from incest to hebephilia

Adolescent sexual abuse: from incest to hebephilia

Introduction: On the eve of its entry into the DSM-V, hebephilia is a sexual deviance under debate. Few studies describe hebephiles, then who are these sex offenders?

Objectives: Assess the profile of adolescents sex offenders and their victims, and the characteristics of their penal treatment.

Methods: This is a retrospective study carried out from the court records of adolescents sex offenders followed by the State Department on the Enforcement of Sentences of Tours and Chateauroux (France).

Results: 31 offenders and 57 victims have been identified.

• Concerning offenders: the average age was 37.8 ± 9.4 years. 71% had a job and 51.6% lived in couple. 87.1% had normal or borderline intellectual level. 38.7% had been victimized in childhood, of which 58.3% had experienced sexual violence.
• Regarding penal treatment: 42% of subjects were judged by a correctional court, and 58% by a criminal court. 22.6% of subjects were in recidivism. The average length of imprisonment was 7.5 ± 4.2 years. 67.8% of subjects were sentenced to treatment with 48.4% imposed an injunction care. The average duration of treatment was 4.4 ± 3.1 years.
• Concerning victims: 57 victims were identified of which 86% were female. The mean age was 14.1 ± 2.1 years. 58.1% of violences experienced were rapes in with 48.4% of intrafamilial. 67% of violence had repeated character.

Conclusion: This French study in which data are comparable to those of the North American literature, provides details on the characteristics of hebephiles that are passed to the act.

Psychiatry and Mental health