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A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending

Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.

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Other Authors: Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Format: Thesis
Published: University of Pretoria 2013
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
author_browse Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
author_facet Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2009, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010.
format Thesis
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:38:30.789Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2013
publishDateRange 2013
publishDateSort 2013
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/24559 A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending Bezuidenhout, Christiaan tara@whps.co.za Harris, Tara Farrer Interpretive phenomenological analysis Ipa Integrated theories Qualitative research Psychocriminology Youth sex offender Risk factors Individual level risk factors Psychological theories Social theories Social level risk factors UCTD Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. Youth sex offenders are not a homogenous population. They differ in terms of race, social class, victim preferences (both in terms of age and in terms of whether the victim is known to the offender or not), their modus operandi to gain compliance, levels of aggression and physical violence, the types (“hands on” or “hands off”) and levels (level 1, 2, or 3) of offences and lastly their motivations for committing a sex offence. The motivations are linked to the risk factors to which an individual is exposed, for example, a youth that was previously sexually victimised could sexually act out his experiences. A qualitative approach was used in this study. The researcher aimed to gain a holistic comprehension of the risk factors that youth attribute to their sex offending behaviour and thus this was the most appropriate approach to use. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as the data collection method as this allowed the researcher the freedom to change the sequence and forms of the questions in order to follow up on responses. The function of this interview schedule was to direct the researcher to ensure that she covered all the themes needed to obtain the necessary data. The interview schedule was made up of nine categories, namely: biographic characteristics, academic performance, extramural activities, substance use, family substance use problems, family and community violence, emotional status, caring and attachment to family and peers, sexual abuse and knowledge about sex. After the interviews were conducted, the data was transcribed, analysed and interpreted. The researcher made use of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to determine the emergent themes. The researcher eliminated the emergent themes that were impossible to label, or those deemed to be irrelevant to the study. Thereafter, the researcher clustered the emergent themes into sub-ordinate themes and validated these main and sub-ordinate themes. The researcher then provided a textural description to depict the experience and a structural description to depict the possible explanation of the experience of the respondents. Finally, a composite description provided the structure for the interpretation of the data. The researcher interpreted the main and sub-ordinate themes with relation to the literature review and the theories deemed useful in explaining the risk factors associated with youth sex offending, namely: Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory of personality development, Albert Bandura’s social cognition theory, William Marshall and Howard Barbaree’s integrated theory, and Neil Malamuth’s confluence model of sexual aggression. The analysis and interpretation of the data revealed certain possible risk factors that could contribute to the phenomenon of youth sex offending in South Africa. The researcher provided possible methods of addressing these risk factors. The dearth of knowledge regarding the phenomenon of youth sex offending highlights the need for further research and the researcher made several recommendations regarding future research prospects in order to address this social problem and to give youth sex offenders the best chance of adopting pro-social behaviour. Copyright Social Work and Criminology unrestricted 2013-09-06T18:00:26Z 2010-05-11 2013-09-06T18:00:26Z 2010-04-12 2010-05-11 2010-05-11 Dissertation Harris, TF 2009, A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/24559 > E10/243/gm http://hdl.handle.net/2263/24559 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05112010-191255/ © 2009, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Interpretive phenomenological analysis
Ipa
Integrated theories
Qualitative research
Psychocriminology
Youth sex offender
Risk factors
Individual level risk factors
Psychological theories
Social theories
Social level risk factors
UCTD
A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title_full A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title_fullStr A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title_full_unstemmed A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title_short A psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
title_sort psychocriminological investigation into risk factors contributing to youth sex offending
topic Interpretive phenomenological analysis
Ipa
Integrated theories
Qualitative research
Psychocriminology
Youth sex offender
Risk factors
Individual level risk factors
Psychological theories
Social theories
Social level risk factors
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/24559
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-05112010-191255/