Criminal Justice

1. Research one female and one juvenile sex offender from information in the media, and other reputable sources.

2. Describe their information, the crimes that they were accused (or convicted) of, and what their punishment (if any) were.

3. Compare and contrast this with male and/or adult offenders both in crime type and consequences. Are females and juveniles held to a different standard? Should they be?

ANSWER

CRJ 406 Paper 2

Introduction

Sexual offenders come in different offenses and commit a high or low-level sexually related crime. Being registered as a sex offender in society comes with harsh and unfair consequences. Based on the level of a sexual offense, most offenders end up in some form of punishment and length of incarceration. This paper will focus on female and juvenile sex offenders and their punishments depending on the crime type and typologies. The two main sex offenders to be discussed include Brittany Zamora and Daniel Hood.

Brittany Zamora

Female sex offenders have made about 10% of the sex offenders’ population. All over media, there are cases of adult women taking advantage of the kids. Crimes of this nature have now become a reality in society. Britany Zamora, a female sex offender, was convicted for the sexual offense with a 13-year-old student. Brittany was a predatory teacher who caught the attention of Americans for sexually grooming a sixth-grade student (Burkitt, 2020). In 2018, Brittany signed into Instagram and begun sending a series of sexually explicit texts to a 13-year-old boy in her class. The boy revealed that they were having a sexual relationship with the teacher. The parents used the child’s phone and explicitly messaged the teacher, and she messaged back. Unfortunately, the father’s child was watching and confronted Brittany via a recorded phone call to serve as major evidence in her sexual abuse trial.

In March 2018, the 27-year-old married predatory teacher was prisoned and accused with eight sexual offense with a minor, one of sending obscene materials, and two counts of child molestation. Brittany had groomed the boy for months using mobile message apps, where she then pursued a sexual affiliation with the child (Burkitt, 2020). The sexual abuse was happening for about three months before the parents realized the illicit text messages that were noticed by a parental monitoring app installed in the kid’s phone. Sentry, a parental monitoring app, discovered several illicit text messages between the underage student and Zamora.

After the accusations, Brittany was arraigned in court and sentenced to 20 years after accepting to have molested the child, which was the last sentence she could get for committing the crime (Burkitt, 2020). Brittany will be put on trial in her lifetime and must register as a sex offender after she is released. Considerably, an individual that has been convicted on offenses against minors such as sex offenses must register as a sex offender. This system is used in tracking and monitoring sex offenders after they have been released from prison for public safety (Connor and Tewksbury, 2017). It’s a national crime not to register or fill in the registration as required. For instance, Brittany will have to bring up-to-date their registration in every dominion they reside in or are working.

Daniel Hood

Juvenile offenders are minors or young individuals that engage in unlawful sexual behaviors than the statutory age of majority. Sexual offenses by juveniles have been a serious issue and perhaps more disturbing than adult sex offenses. The charge enforced by juvenile sex upsetting is considered to the crime victims and society as a whole and those enacted on their relatives. Juveniles involved in sex offenses pose risks and developmental needs linked to their sexually abusive behaviors. In 2003, Daniel, 14 years old, had made arrangements to spend the night at the defendant’s home (Wells, 2017). The defendant was 13 years old and was a first cousin to Daniel. Before the night, they had a loving and close familial relationship. The victim arrived at the defendant’s house at around 10 p.m., where he found Robert Sanico, a 17-year-old, and the defendant.

The horrible event occurred after the father’s defendant went to bed. Sanico and the defendant forcibly carried the defendant to the couch, held her face down, and tied her wrists together behind her back using duct tape. Sanico inserted a plunger handle which was wrapped in the cellophane inside the victim’s vagina. The juvenile court conducted a hearing that determined that Daniel should be tried as a juvenile and Sanico as an adult. Daniel was found guilty of aggravated rape and kidnapping. However, since he never committed the actual crime, he was placed in the custody of the Children’s Services Department. After finishing the rehabilitation program, he was transferred to a juvenile group home in West Knoxville. The juvenile group home is a long-term facility where juveniles are allowed extensive interaction with the community, such as attending school (Oman et al., 2018). They are considered less restrictive compared to juvenile detention centers.

Comparison and Contrast between Different Sex Offenders

There are differences and relationships between the male and female sex delinquents in terms of crime type and consequences. The victims of male and female sex delinquents range from newborns to the age of 18. One of the major risks for the likelihood of abuse against others among adults is a individual history of sexual abuse, physical or emotional harm during childhood (Williams and Bierie, 2015). Females have made up a very small percentage of sexual offenders, which often goes unreported and unpunished. Most female sexual offenders are child sexual abusers, while most male sexual offenders are rapists. The difference between rapists and child sexual abusers is that child sexual abusers are defined as exhibiting feelings of loneliness, poor social skills, and sexual problems, which makes their offending behaviors internal and uncontrollable. For instance, most females who have been sexually offended have suffered various sexual and severe physical abuse.

The female sexual offenders are motivated by revenge and rejection. Ideally, most female sex offenders are involved in physical victimization such as intimate partner sexual assault and domestic abuse, which brings the dual nature of sexual offending. On the other hand, rapists characterize their offenses to their external, uncontrollable, and unstable causes. Most male sex offenders are likely to abuse substances, have low socioeconomic status, and have a personality disorder. They have also displayed criminogenic needs such as negative peer influence, intimacy deficit, lack of general self-regulation, and violation-supportive attitudes (Williams and Bierie, 2015). One of the greatest challenges among both male and female sex offenders is poor coping skills. They both exhibit poor problem-solving skills, which lead them to victimize young children.

In terms of consequences, female sex offenders are treated with more leniency than men. Yet, there is a bias for reasons such as females being considered weaker sex, victims being put forward to report them, and offense being viewed as a fantasy of a crime (Cortoni and Gannon, 2016). Without bias in the legal system, female sex offenders could face consequences similar to men for the same type of crime, thus leading to longer sentences with regards to the crimes they committed. Gender has played a big role in sentencing sex offenders such that females face less sentencing than mean that they committed the same crime.

The characteristics of victims and crimes vary for both juvenile and adult sex offenders. The juvenile and adult offenders have major differences in the length of sexual affiliations, committed offenses, quality of relationships, existence of force during sexual abuse, and nature of the sexual acts committed. The sex crimes committed by juveniles are small in number as compared to the adult sex offenses. Considerably, most adult sex offenders engage in sexual abuse when juveniles.

Adult and juvenile sex offenders have different recidivism rates. Katsiyannis, Whitford, Zhang, and Gage (2018) found that adult sex offenders released from prison are rearrested for another sex crime. Juveniles, on the other hand, are less likely to engage in other sex crimes. Most juveniles are likely to target those around them than adult sex delinquents that target strangers. Both adult and juvenile sex delinquents have been characterized as suffering from deficits in social competency and self-esteem. Most of them have victimization histories, depression, and psychosexual disturbances.

The consequences of juvenile and adult offenders vary as juveniles receive lenient punishment, such as the community-based sex offender treatment program (Frye, 2019). Adult offenders are convicted according to the nature of sexual abuse, their social consequences, and their impact on the victim. The females and juveniles are held to a different standard which is inappropriate since they have similar risk factors. According to Shields and Cochran (2020), there exists a gender gap in sex offender punishment. Consequences and sentencing of the sexual offenders should not vary in terms of age or gender but the nature of the crime, social consequences, and impact on the victim.  Treatment of female, male and juvenile sex offenders should be standard since offenders must be treated equally for sexual misconduct.

Conclusion

In summation, sexual violence has remained a social issue with devastating consequences. The sex offenders vary from adult females, males, and juveniles who engage in deviant sexual behaviors. The consequences of the sexual offenses varying with age and gender, with male adults facing harsh consequences due to sexual offenses. However, the treatment and consequences of sexual offense should focus on the nature of the sexual behavior, social consequences, and impact on the victim rather than age and gender.

References

Burkitt, B. (2020, May 17). Arizona teacher to be sentenced for having sex with 13-year-old; she may have been grooming another student for sex.

Connor, D. P., & Tewksbury, R. (2017). Public and professional views of sex offender registration and notification. Criminology, Crim. Just. L & Soc’y, 18, 1.

Cortoni, F., & Gannon, T. A. (2016). Female sexual offenders: An overview. Sexual offending, 213-224.

Frye, B. (2019). Juvenile sex offender treatment: How are we doing and where are we going. Forensic Scholars Today, 5(1).

Katsiyannis, A., Whitford, D. K., Zhang, D., & Gage, N. A. (2018). Adult recidivism in the United States: A meta-analysis 1994–2015. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(3), 686-696.

Oman, R. F., Vesely, S. K., Green, J., Fluhr, J., & Williams, J. (2018). Sexual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of youth living in group homes. Health Behavior and Policy Review, 5(2), 74-87.

Shields, R. T., & Cochran, J. C. (2020). The gender gap in sex offender punishment. Journal of quantitative criminology, 36(1), 95-118.

Wells, T. (2017, October 03). Cleaning a Permanent Stain: A Fan’s Struggle To Accept Daniel Hood.

Williams, K. S., & Bierie, D. M. (2015). An incident-based comparison of female and male sexual offenders. Sexual Abuse, 27(3), 235-257.