Understanding desistance from sexual offending

在犯罪学方面有一个悠久的研究传统，研究被定罪的罪犯为什么不再继续犯罪。然而，到目前为止，关于停止犯罪的研究几乎都集中在一般的反社会罪犯身上，关于停止犯罪的研究很少发表，特别是关于性犯罪的研究。这一建议解决了文献中的这一具体差距——它开始使用一些技术，这些技术已被用于在性犯罪停止的具体问题领域内检查一般罪犯之间的停止行为。研究设计将包括采访和比较“惯犯”性犯罪者样本和“停止”性犯罪者样本的生活故事。累犯子样本将用于比较，由10-15人组成，接受缓刑监督。这一群体将根据对儿童进行性犯罪的不止一次定罪来确定，并将进一步细化，只包括那些最近一次进行性犯罪是在研究之日起12个月内的罪犯。这是因为其他研究（如Healy 2010）表明，对犯罪的克制是一个随时间发展的迭代过程。通过采访持续的性犯罪者，在他们最近一次犯罪的时间相对较近的时候，我们将能够更好地了解他们“持续”的经历。这些人将通过他们的缓刑官联系。“停止”子样本将由25-30人组成，这些人至少在3年前因对儿童实施性侵犯而被定罪，并在社区内持执照至少2年无犯罪行为，但仍在缓刑服务机构的监督下。这个群体将从缓刑记录中确定，并与个人的缓刑官员协商，他们将在社区密切监视他们几年。子样本将在个案基础上尽可能与已知的与累犯有关的关键变量（例如，年龄、定罪类型、先前定罪次数）进行匹配。活跃小组将从目前在区域性犯罪者股（RSOU）覆盖的一个或多个缓刑信托基金接受性犯罪者治疗的罪犯中选出。RSOU由马克·法默（Mark Farmer）管理，为英格兰中部地区的五个缓刑信托机构提供性犯罪者治疗。这给了一个超过400人的潜在样本群体。数据收集方法将采用半结构化的密集访谈两组。将采用一种广泛的现象学方法来确定参与者理解他们生活的方式，特别是他们是如何经历导致犯罪的生活事件的，以及犯罪的持续与否。理论的形成将遵循一个扎根的理论方法论。这是一种研究性犯罪者的新方法，因为尽管定性研究已广泛用于非性犯罪者（见上文），但使用这种方法研究性犯罪者的研究很少。之所以选择这种方法，是因为普遍缺乏对性犯罪者的定性研究，而已有的研究已经揭示了迄今为止更多定量方法无法提供的丰富数据来源。研究结果将用于指导缓刑和监狱的性犯罪者评估和治疗方法，并促进学术领域的知识。

There is a long tradition of research in criminology which examines why convicted offenders desist from further offending. However, to date research into desistance from crime has focused almost exclusively on the general antisocial offender and there has been little published research into desistance specifically from sexual offending. This proposal addresses this specific gap in the literature - it sets out to use some of the techniques that have been used to examine desistance amongst offenders in general within the specific problem field of desistance from sexual offending. The research design will involve interviewing and comparing the life stories of a sample of 'recidivist' sex offenders and a sample of 'desisting' individuals. The recidivist sub-sample will be used for comparison purposes and will consist of 10-15 individuals under probation supervision. This group will be determined by the presence of more than one conviction for a sexual offence against a child and will be further refined by including only those offenders where the most recent sexual offence is within 12 months from the date of the research. This is because other research (e.g. Healy 2010) shows desistance from crime to be an iterative process that develops over time. By interviewing persistent sex offenders relatively close to the date of their most recent offence we will be able to better understand their experience of 'persistence'. These individuals will be approached through their probation officer. The 'desisting' sub sample will consist of 25-30 individuals who were convicted of committing a sexual offence against a child a minimum of 3 years previously and have been living crime free in the community under licence for at least 2 years, but who are still under the supervision of the probation service. This group will be identified from probation records and in consultation with the individuals' probation officers who will have monitored them closely for several years in the community. Sub-samples will be matched on a case-by-case basis as closely as possible on key variables known to be related to recidivism (e.g., age, conviction type, numbers of previous convictions). The active group will be selected from those offenders currently attending sex offender treatment in one or more of the probation trusts covered by the Regional Sex Offender Unit (RSOU). The RSOU is run by Mark Farmer and provides sex offender treatment for five of the probation trusts in the Midlands of England. This gives a potential sample group of over 400 individuals. The data collection method will be semi-structured intensive interviews with the two groups. A broadly phenomenological approach will be adopted to identify the way participants understand their lives and particularly how they have experienced life events that have led to offending, and its persistence or otherwise. The formulation of theory will follow a grounded theory methodology. This is a novel approach with sexual offenders because although qualitative research has been used widely with non-sexual offenders (see above) there is little research using this methodology with sexual offenders. This methodology has been chosen because there is a general lack of qualitative research with sex offenders, and what research there is has uncovered a rich source of data that has so far eluded more quantitative methods.The results will be used to inform sex offender assessment and treatment approaches in probation and prisons, as well as to advance the knowledge in the academic field.