Group sex offending by juveniles: coercive sex as a group activity

We study sex offences carried out by groups of juveniles, focusing on offender characteristics and the interaction patterns within offender groups and between offenders and victims. Using reconstructions of offences from court files as well as information retrieved from personality screenings, we conclude that perpetrators generally had below-average intelligence, and otherwise a fairly average personality profile. Group size was on average four. Offences were generally not planned as such. In some cases, offenders had agreed to have sex with a victim, although without discussing how to arrange that. In other cases, offenders seemed to know what was going to happen without discussing it beforehand. In one-third of the groups, a leader orchestrated the offence during the perpetration. The group either was instrumental or functioned as a public to witness the debasement of the victim. The offence itself is often regarded as entertainment. In most offence situations at least one vaginal rape took place. In many cases the victim was threatened, even after completion of the offence. © 2007 European Society of Criminology and SAGE Publications.