ABSTRACT
Research has found that between one-third and one-fourth of all sexual offences are committed by young people under the age of 18 (Horne et al. 1991; Cawson et al. 2000; NSPCC 2002). Home Office statistics for 2005 showed that of the 6400 individuals cautioned for or found guilty of sexual offences approximately 17 per cent were between 10 and 17 years old. Of the approximately 1600 offenders cautioned, the vast majority of whom were male, around 19 per cent were between the ages of 12 and 14 and 13 per cent were 15 and 17 years old (Hutton and Whyte 2006: 115). As a result of their research, Becker and Abel (1984) estimated that the average adolescent sexual offender would during his lifetime commit 380 sexual crimes: ‘Criminal statistics refer only to those over the age of criminal responsibility, which varies greatly between jurisdictions, and record only reported offences’ (Hutton and Whyte 2006: 115–116). This observation along with the widely held belief that all sex crimes are significantly under-reported support the view that ‘research based on crime statistics is likely to reveal only a small proportion of actual incidents of sexual offences’ (Hutton and Whyte 2006: 116).
