Are exhibitionists dangerous offenders? Data on previous and subsequent delinquency

摘要

Exhibitionists are generally considered to be repeated but otherwise inoffensive delinquents. In contrast to this position in the past politicians repeatedly declared acting exhibitionistically to be the starting point of a development leading to sexual assaults. The following analysis is based on conviction records for the years 1998 to 2000. Out of 1979 Federal Registry records a total of 34 showed a development toward sexual assault. A far greater number of delinquents were convicted for property crime or common crime like assault or libel. This could has been confirmed for the time before they have committed exhibitionistic acts in public as well as after that. Convictions for similar of-fenses like indecent behaviour or sexual acts in front of children are common as well. More than one fifth of all offenders committed such an offence over the evaluated period of about 5 years after the reference crime. A much more decisive fact is that absolutely as well as relatively more offenders had been convicted of sexual assault before they were convicted of exhibitionistic acts in public. So from a statistical point of view a correlation between acting exhibitionistically and sexual assaults is not obvious. The ongoing dissection of files gives reason to classify the above mentioned 34 offenders to be a atypical type of exhibitionist, what means that their behavior is dominated by a antisocial personality and not by exhibitionism in psychiatric terms.