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Study of Sentenced Sexual Psychopaths

NCJ Number
122259
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 68 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall-Winter 1988) Pages: 36-50
Author(s)
J J McKenna Jr
Date Published
1988
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This research effort explored demographic characteristics of sentenced sexual psychopaths in Pennsylvania and their violent and dangerous tendencies.
Abstract
Of 133 sentenced sexual psychopaths included in the study, 25 percent were born in the Philadelphia area. They had a median age of 32 years, 90 percent were white, and 55 percent were single. About 60 percent of the crimes involved assaultive sex crimes such as forcible rape, attempted rape, assault with intent to ravish, incestuous forcible rape, aggravated sexual assault and battery, and indecent assault. These crimes resulted in physical injury to 32 percent of the victims. The sentenced sexual psychopaths were typically white male, native Pennsylvanians who committed sexual assault or a crime of sodomy in a suburban or rural community. They were in marked contrast to sex offenders nationwide who were typically black and white offenders who committed sex crimes in the city. The Pennsylvania sexual psychopaths reflected normative conformity in the high number who identified with a religious denomination and in the relatively high number who were married and who served honorably in the armed forces. In IQ scores, education, and drug use, sexual psychopaths showed very little deviancy and appeared to be normative. In the sentencing of convicted sex offenders under Pennsylvania's Barr-Walker Act, factors that played an important role were conviction for crimes of sexual assault or sodomy, the victim being a minor, victim gender, and prior arrest for a sex crime. Violence or physical injury to the victim did not appear to be a major consideration in sentencing. 24 references, 11 tables.