Parental bonds in adolescent perpetrators of sexual violence

A deep understanding of the characteristics of sex offenders may serve to improve clinical prevention and treatment programs. Mostly, however, this knowledge can aid in the creation of better re-education and rehabilitation programs as well as criminological treatment. In prison systems outside of Italy, the use of treatment programs specifically designed for sex offenders is commonplace, whereas in Italy, there is only sporadic experimentation in this field which is aimed at evaluating adults. If this is true for adults, it is even more so for the minors who commit this type of crime that gives rise to worry and a great sense of alarm. The aim of this work is to show the preliminary results of an empirical study that explores the mental representations of the parents of minors who commit acts of sexual violence towards other. This study is an ongoing in collaboration with the Juvenile Justice Center (Centro Giustizia Minorile) of the Region of Apulia, whose first data on 10 juvenile perpetrators of such specific crimes are presented here.