”Being friends with my story” How young men who have sexually offended view their sexuality

Abstract

Research on sexual offenders tends to focus on the coercive aspect of their sexuality and overlook the non-coercive aspect. This study explored sexual experiences and intimate relationships among 20 men who sexually offended in their adolescence and were labelled as “juvenile sex offenders”. The males were interviewed during their adolescence and early adulthood and the transcripts were thematically analysed. The results showed that the boys had a view of sexuality characterized by lack of knowledge, few positive experiences and several negative experiences. As young adults, they struggled with intimacy and seemed to handle this through different strategies. The results points to the necessity for treatments aimed at strengthening the non-coercive aspect of sexuality rather than simply eliminating the coercive sexuality.