Abstract

Background Research based on developmental criminology has allowed us to delve deeper into the life trajectories of adolescents who commit abusive sexual practices. From this approach, a complex relationship between stress, life events, social relationships and behavioral problems is proposed as conditions linked to the adaptation process during adolescence. In relation to adverse experiences in childhood, the accumulated evidence indicates that current and past life experiences, and the stressful subjective assessment made of them, have a strong impact not only on the mental health of adolescents, but also on the type of behaviors that they present. Regarding social maladjustment, the evidence suggests that generally those adolescents who only commit abusive sexual practices have fewer behavioral problems and sexual recidivism, compared to adolescents who present abusive sexual practices, added to other types of law violations. Aims The aim of this research is to examine the possible relationship that adverse life experiences in childhood and social maladjustment would have on the risk of sexual recidivism in Chilean adolescents who have committed abusive sexual practices. The specific objectives are: a) Analyze the existence and characteristics of adverse childhood experiences in the sample, b) Evaluate the presence and level of social maladjustment in the adolescents in the sample, c) Identify and compare the differences in adverse childhood experiences and social maladjustment between adolescents at low and high risk of sexual recidivism, and d) Explore the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and social maladjustment with the risk of sexual recidivism. Method & procedures A quantitative approach was used to analyze 115 adolescent males in specialized treatment for abusive sexual practices. Three instruments were used: Adolescent Social Behavior Self-Report Questionnaire (CACSA), Criminal Engagement Severity Scale (EGED), and Screening Scale for Adverse Childhood Experiences (EEA). The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR 2.0) was used to estimate the risk of sexual recidivism. ERASOR 2.0 was used to segment the sample according to risk of sexual recidivism, establishing low (GRB) and high (GRA) risk groups. Subsequently, both groups were compared using Student's t tests to identify differences in means in each instrument (CACSA, EGED and EEA) according to risk level. After that, the effect size and sensitivity were calculated for each of the results. In addition, a binary logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the statistical probability that the independent variables (social behavior, severity of criminal involvement, and adverse childhood experiences) could predict the level of risk of sexual recidivism. Results & discussion Regarding adverse experiences in childhood, the results show coherence with various international studies that report high prevalence of adverse experiences and