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The aggravating and mitigating circumstances that contribute to increased, or decreased, sentence severity for sex offenders have largely been unexplored. Although previous studies have evaluated offending groups who have targeted adult-only, or children-only victims, the current study compares the sentencing outcomes of both offending groups. Using a sample of 519 federally sentenced sex offenders in the province of Quebec the current study explores the extent to which the Canadian criminal justice system penalizes offender- and offense-based characteristics. The results indicate that offense-based characteristics increased sentence severity for offenders who victimized adults and offender-based characteristics influenced sentence severity for offenders who victimized children. Findings are discussed within the context of previous studies to empirically explore sex offender sentencing and compare differences that aggravating and mitigating circumstances have on sentence outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the where and when of sexual assaults to determine what types of sexual crimes are committed at different time and place classifications. Exhaustive CHAID (chi-squared automatic interaction detection) analyses are conducted, examining factors associated with crimes that were committed indoors or outdoors, in private or public places, during the day or at night, and during the week or on the weekend. These methods are applied to a sample of 361 sexual crime events committed by 72 serial sex offenders. The results are strikingly different dependent on which spatial or temporal aspect of the crime is examined, which implies the complexity of sexual crime events and their situational components. This research brings to light possible policy implications with respect to situational crime prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]