Classification Of Sex Offenders

It has long been suspected that sex offenders have lower IQs than non-sex offenders. Studies on the topic go as far back as 80 years. A large number of these studies on the topic of sex offender IQ, however, use no classification scheme to break down the sex offenses by subcategories, such as the age group of victim or age group of the offender. In fact, all of the previous studies on the topic of sexual offender IQ lump all subjects into a single, heterogeneous sample with no distinguishing characteristics. As a result, only generalizations can be made without distinguishing certain types of sexual offending behaviors as related to intellectual capacity. In a quantitative review of 236 previous studies on offender IQ, authors Cantor,
The findings were presented clearly by the authors using six bar graph figures. Figure one displayed the mean IQ score of 85 as the base and comparing (a) sex offenders; (b) nonsexual offenders; and (c) nonoffenders. The results of this test found that the literature supports the author’s initial hypothesis that as a whole, men who commit sexual offenses have lower IQ scores than those who commit nonsexual offenses (2005, p. 559). Figure two compared the following using a mean IQ of 85: sexual offenders against children; sexual offenders against adults; nonsexual offenders; nonoffenders; and sexual offenders with victims of unknown age (2005, p. 560). Again, the results support the hypothesis that the IQ of sex offenders correlates with the age of the victim (2005, p. 560). Figure three demonstrated mean IQ scores of samples of adult sex offenders against children, but was difficult for the reader to interpret the results. Figure four compared the IQ scores for intrafamilial and extrafamiliar sex offenders, and these findings support the hypothesis that IQ of sex offenders who commit intrafamilial sex offenses have lower average IQ scores than those who commit extrafamilial offenses (2005, p. 562). Figures five and six demonstrate IQ scores of sex offenders against children, against adults, and those with unclassifiable victims. Once again, Cantor, et al., was able to support the hypothesis that sex offenders with male victims score slightly lower than those who have female victims (2005, p. 563). Finally, figure six gives a generalized comparison of mean IQ scores for the adult vs juvenile categories of (a) sex offenders; (b) nonsexual offenders; and (c) nonoffenders. In all three categories, adults scored significantly higher in IQ than juveniles (2005, p.