Recidivism of Individuals Convicted of Exhibitionism

Table of Contents
Overview
Summary
Implications for Mitigation
Reference

Overview

What are the factors that can aggravate the already-high likelihood of recidivism for individuals who have committed the act of exhibitionism?

Summary

Exhibitionism has an interesting place in the criminal justice system.  It is often seen as a minor offense.  In many jurisdictions, individuals convicted of these crimes are given short probation sentences and short treatment requirements.  This seems to be at odds with what is known about exhibitionism.

Though it is not as frequently researched as other forms of sexual offending, what we do know is that it has a high recidivism rate and one individual can have a large number of undetected victims. 

This older study (2006) by Firestone et al attempted to improve what is known about both the recidivism rates of exhibitionists as well as looking at the possibility of progression to contact offending by someone who has a previous history of exhibitionism. 

This study looked at a sample of 208 Canadian men who met one of three criteria.  They were diagnosed by a psychiatrist with exhibitionism, convicted of exposing in the court or self referred to treatment for a problem with exhibitionism.  They were given a multitude of assessments including those for alcohol abuse, hostility, sexual functioning, psychopathy and were also assessed by phallometric tests. They were followed for anywhere from one to 19 years to assess recidivism.

The recidivism rates were 23.6% for sexual offenses, 31.3% for violent offenses and 38.9% of other criminality. Individuals who engaged in sexual recidivism were more likely to be less educated and have higher scores on the alcohol abuse measure than non-recidivists.  They also had higher scores on the Pedophile index of phallometry and higher PCL-R scores (an indicator of psychopathy).    

Another aim of the study was to ascertain if exhibitionists who did recidivate escalated into a more serious offense.  The study found that 19 of the subjects did escalate into a physical sexual assault for their subsequent offense.  

The study found that the MAST measure of alcoholism was a valuable tool for differentiating those individuals who were sexual, violent and criminal recidivists and those who did not reoffend.  This provides further support for alcoholism being a significant dynamic risk factor for reoffending.

Implications for Mitigation

Unfortunately, as with most research on exhibitionism, it is not favorable for defending these clients.  They have a substantial recidivism risk and this study shows that there is a risk of someone who engages in exhibitionism to move on to a hands-on sex crime.

Reference

Firestone, P., Kingston, D.A., Wexler, A., & Bradford, J.M. (2006).  Long-term follow-up of exhibitionists:  Psychological, phallometric and offense characteristics.  Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, 34(3), 349-359.