Sex Offender Behaviour
Risk Assessment identifies the circumstances in which sexual abuse is most likely to occur and informs strategies to deal with the most relevant triggers.
A Risk Management Plan includes an awareness of the potential for changes in the level of risk over time, requiring an emphasis on the dynamic risk factors. (Department of Health, 2007).
Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation is not caused by a child’s vulnerability – it is caused by the deliberate intention of one or more abusers, working alone or together, to sexually abuse a child or children combined with the availability of the child and the opportunity to offend. The vulnerability factors describe which children and young people are more likely to be targeted by predatory adults: It is vital to understand that perpetrator behaviour (victim selection, grooming / victim access patterns, use of physical and psychological coercion and control, and opportunities to offend) will exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities and influence children and young people’s behaviour, disclosure patterns and ongoing protection needs.
This has significant implications then for investigation, risk assessment and prosecution.
Offending Cycles
A great deal is now known and understood about perpetrators of sexual violence, both male and female. Sexual Violence does not occur spontaneously and may also be linked to, and a part of, other forms of criminality (Jago & Pearce, 2008, Child Exploitation and online Protection Centre, 2011). Whilst many sexual abusers may have no prior criminal record, those that do often have a range of previous sexual offences and non-sexual offences in their criminal history – for instance, those engaged in child sexual exploitation (CSE) typically have a history of:
Acquisitive offences,
Violent offences including domestic violence, sexual offences (including making / distributing child abuse images, extreme images and prohibited images)
Non-sexual offences against children including neglect, cruelty and abduction
Miscellaneous offences e.g. supply / possession of drugs, public order offences, perverting the course of justice, harassment, driving offences, possession of an offensive weapon, criminal damage, arson and supervision breaches
(Child Exploitation and online Protection Centre, 2011)
Consequently, child sexual abuse and exploitation may be seen in the context of an established pattern of behaviour. The first attempt to describe this progression as an integrated model of sexual violence was proposed by S.C. Wolf in 1984 (Morrison, Erooga, & Beckett, 1994). This model is known as the Offending Cycle and is still used widely to describe a pattern of sexually aggressive or violent behaviour that can escalate in terms of frequency and severity over time. It addresses transitions from pre-contemplation of offences to contemplation, preparation (rehearsal and grooming) to perpetrating the offence, post-hoc rationalisation and justification (including victim blaming). Though referred to as a cycle, the model is better described as an escalating spiral with a repetition of particular stages along an evolutionary course: motivation to sexually abuse - fantasy - guilt/fear of consequences - cognitive distortions - fantasy /masturbation - refining cognitive distortions - preparation/grooming – abuse
Preconditions for Child Sexual Abuse
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MOTIVATION |
Emotional Congruence, sexual arousal, Blockage impulsivity / disinhibition |
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OVERCOMING INTERNAL INHIBILITONS |
Developing cognitive distortions justifying or minimising abuse of children |
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OVERCOMING EXTERNAL INHIBITIONS |
Planning, grooming, creating the opportunity to offend and reducing risks of discovery |
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OVERCOMING THE RESISTANCE OF THE CHILD |
Methods of overcoming any resistance offered by the victim – Grooming behaviour, physical and psychological coercion and control. |
Motivation for Child Sexual Abuse
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EMOTIONAL CONGRUENCE |
Children are attractive because of lack of dominance Arrested development / immaturity Low self-esteem Mastery of trauma - repetition of own abuse experience through abuse of others Identification with aggressive / violent role model NArcissism Male socialisation to dominance |
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AROUSAL |
Heightened arousal to children Conditioning from early childhood experience Modelling from earlier childhood experiences Hormional abnormalities Misattribution of arousal Socialisation through child pornography or advertising (e.g. internet chat rooms and dark web) |
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BLOCKAGE |
Difficulty relating to adults Inadequate social skills Sexual Anxiety Disturbance in adult sexual romantic relationships Repressive norms about sexual behaviour |
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IMPULSIVITY / DISINHIBITION |
Impulse disorder Dementia Cognitive impairment Alcohol / drugs/substances (especially if deliberately used as a disinhibitor Failure of incest avoidance mechanism Situational Stress Cultural toleration Patriarchal norms |
The Pathways Model: Ward & Seigert
The most recent development of this aetiological model of sexual offending comes from Ward and Seigert who have provided the Pathways Model of sexual offending. This model argues that there are a number of distinct pathways leading to the sexual abuse of a child. Each pathway has at the core a set of ‘mechanisms’ that cause the problems that are often present among such offenders. These mechanisms are associated with emotional regulation, interpersonal competence, cognition and sexual preference (developmental experiences).
Distal factors are Preconditions of the offender such as childhood experiences and development, long-term psychological mechanisms that may lead to offending if the environmental situation is conducive.
Proximal factors occur in the environment and change the distal factors into actual offending – effectively “trigger” the predispositions into actions.
1) Difficulty in controlling and identifying emotional states
2) Social isolation, loneliness and general dissatisfaction
3) Offence supportive beliefs, lack of empathy for the victim
4) Deviant sexual fantasies and arousal
In many respects this reflects Finkelhor's muti-factoral model to describe motivation to abuse (Finkelhor, et al., 1986) and the pre-contemplative and contemplative stages of Wolf’s offence cycle. According to Ward and Seigert these clusters contribute to a set of four psychological “mechanisms” that make the offender vulnerable to committing abuse;
Intimacy & Social Skills Deficits- Social isolation, loneliness and general dissatisfaction
Deviant Sexual Scripts – when sex is to take place, with whom, what to do and how to interpret cues or signals associated with different stages of the sexual encounter
Emotional Dysregulation -Difficulty in controlling and identifying emotional states
Cognitive Distortions – Children as Sexual Objects, entitlement, dangerous World, Uncontrollable, Nature of Harm
(Ward & Seigert, 2002)
These “mechanisms” constitute distal factors i.e. they make the individual vulnerable to perpetrating sexual abuse. The proximal or trigger factors may therefore be peer relationships, opportunity and low risk, perceived rewards. It is easy to see the debt this model owes to the work of Finkelhor and Wolf and others and knits theories together to form 5 pathways to sexual offending:
1) Multiple Dysfunctional Mechanisms - where the offender has flaws in all the primary mechanisms. Deviant sexual scripts possibly as a result of childhood abuse lies at the heart
2) Deviant Sexual Script - sexual abuse as a child, sex is seen as purely physical, target children following rejection by adults
3) Intimacy deficit – insecure attachment style leading to intimacy problems, loneliness can lead to inappropriate choice of sexual partner, child seen as a pseudo adult
4) Emotional Deregulation – some offenders appear to lack emotional competence, difficulty identifying emotions, lack empathy and have poor integrity. Sex with a child is used as a coping strategy.
5) Antisocial Cognition – Hold beliefs that support criminal behaviour in general. Possible no deviant scripts but have offended within a number of criminal domains they disregard social norms and have anti-social beliefs and their offending against children lay in this belief.