Intrafamilial adolescent sex offenders: psychological profile and treatment

While it is well understood that sexual offending against children may detrimentally impact their development, it is still not widely appreciated that much of that offending is actually perpetrated by adolescents and, in particular, brothers of victims. Estimating the size of this proportion is diffi cult as there has been comparatively little focus on the issue of adolescent sibling incest. However, estimates of the proportion of intrafamilial abuse which occurs between people from the same generation range from 40 to 90 percent (Bentovim, Vizard & Hollows 1991; Cole 1982; Ryan et al. 1996). Although most of these studies rely on limited samples, it is clear that sexual abuse of children by other children or adolescents constitutes a signifi cant proportion of sexual offending against children.