And those offenders generally have few places to go for any kind of long-term treatment.

Those figures at the Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center bear out national estimates. Adolescents are perpetrators in at least 20 percent of reported cases, according to an article about evaluating sexual abuse in children in the August 2005 Pediatrics journal.

Children or adolescents who exhibit "inappropriate or excessive sexual behavior" may be reacting to their own victimization, the article said. They also may live in environments where stressors such as family sexuality or nudity is present.

Cathy Dixon, clinical director of the Mississippi Children's Advocacy Center in Jackson, said the state has "a sore lack of treatment of juvenile offenders."

"Until our state wakes up and addresses this need, we will be raising up a whole next generation of sex offenders larger than the one we have now," Dixon said.

The Children's Advocacy Center provides forensic interviews and therapy for abused children ages 3 to 17 and serves mostly Hinds, Rankin and Madison counties.

Of the 335 cases the center handled in the first six months of this year, the offender was under age 13 in 61 of them, figures show. Fifty cases involved teen perpetrators between the ages of 13 and 17.

The center usually does not assess the offenders, unless it is to rule out their victim status. Then it's up to the Youth Court to decide their fate, "and quite frankly, the answer's usually nothing," Dixon said.

There are limited beds, and some require payment, she said.

"If we can get them into treatment early enough, we can put off their negative behavior," said Hazel Gaines, a nursing coordinator at the Mississippi Children's Justice Center in Jackson. "These kids need some type of psychological assessment."

In one case, a 9-year-old boy penetrated and had oral sex with younger neighbors who were sister and brother, Dixon said.

"He was engaging in adult sex," Dixon said. "If he's doing that at 9, what is he going to be doing at 25?"

In an example from a state Department of Human Services serious incident report, a 17-year-old broke into a mobile home, kidnapped a 2-year-old girl and sexually abused her.

Perpetrators over age 18 can be charged with statutory rape for having forcible sexual intercourse. Statutory rape is a felony that carries a sentence of five to 30 years and a fine of $5,000 to $10,000, depending on the age of the offender and the victim.

Perpetrators between the ages of 13 and 18 also can be convicted, but their fine or sentence must be determined by the court. Perpetrators ages 10 to 16 are referred to Youth Court.

Yet despite the national estimates of juvenile sex offenders and the Children's Advocacy Center's caseload, records from the Hinds County Youth Court intake show less than 5 percent of referrals over the last five years have been for sex offenses such as gratification of lust, sexual battery and fondling.

That's about two to three per month, a court official said.

Many of the cases are not reported, and sometimes the parents of victims do not want to pursue them, the official said.

Madison County Court Judge Cynthia Brewer said the long-term psychiatric residential treatment center Millcreek - which operates out of Magee and Pontotoc - is a "godsend" when it comes to taking in child sex offenders.

She also said she relies heavily on the region's Department of Mental Health staffers who are instrumental in assessing the needs of these children, including medical and family services. They help find placements for these children, taking into consideration whether they need to be isolated to prevent self harm.

The judge has to be careful not to place the victim and the offender in the same facility. Sometimes the child will be placed out of state if the family is willing and can afford it.

Places like Catholic Charities, group homes and specialized foster care facilities, do provide assistance, but there is a limited number of organizations that accept young sex offenders, and an even more limited pool of ones that accept them long term.

"There just needs to be more available not only for the offender, but for the victim, also," said Brewer, who handles Youth Court cases as part of her duties.

East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian has a program that runs up to 90 days for young sex offenders, as does Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield. But Brewer says she becomes frustrated because not everyone can be put in the same mold.

"I would like to have longer than 90 days," she said. "I don't like having limitations on every single case when every single case is always different."

Adjudicating child sex offenders is a responsibility that weighs on her heavily.

"You remember them when you go home and you just read all these books about the percentages of success. It's just not what I want to remember. It just makes me feel like I'm not succeeding at my job when I'm not able to save everyone."

"When you take on a cause, you want to take on that cause and run with it hard," Brewer said.

But she says she finds herself asking, "What is the end in these circumstances?"