ABSTRACT
Juveniles accounted for 14% of the arrests for forcible rape and 18% of the arrests for other sex crimes in the United States in 2012. While the arrests of juvenile females for sex crimes has increased since the mid-1990s, it should be kept in perspective that juvenile females account for only about 2% of juvenile arrests for forcible rape and 9% of juvenile arrests for other sex offenses. An understanding of juvenile sexual offending necessitates attention to its underlying causes or etiology. The observed heterogeneity of adolescent male sexual offenders has complicated legal and clinical decision making and led to efforts to develop an empirically sound typology and decision-support tools. Juveniles arrested for sexual crimes are often referred for mental health evaluations. Sometimes these referrals are made prior to adjudication in an attempt to help determine whether the youth is a sex offender or whether the problem is serious enough to warrant formal legal processing.
