NCJ Number
238496
Date Published
September 2011
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper identifies five common misperceptions about child sex offenders, and the evidence in support of them is assessed.
Abstract
One misperception is that all child sex offenders are pedophiles. This paper maintains that not all child sex offenders are pedophiles, and conversely, not all pedophiles are child sex offenders. Pedophiles are those individuals who are sexually attracted to young children; these individuals may or may not act on this attraction. Conversely, although some child sex offenders are attracted to children, others may have sexual interest in and/or offend against both children and adults, and/or may act out of opportunity, rather than an exclusive sexual interest in children. A second misperception is that child sex offenders target strangers; however, it is well-established that most child sex offenders are known to their victims. A third misperception is that all child sex offenders were victims of sexual abuse themselves. Although a proportion of child sex offenders were abused themselves as children, it is difficult to accurately determine this proportion; results from studies vary considerably. A fourth misperception is that child sex offenders have high rates of recidivism. The literature to date indicates that some subgroups of child sex offenders have higher rates of recidivism than others. Those who target male victims outside of their family are likely to reoffend in the long term compared to child sex offenders who target female and/or family-member victims. A fifth misperception is that by the time an offender is detected, he has victimized hundreds of children. A child sex offender's unreported sex offenses against children is difficult to determine; however, the number of victims reported before detection varies according to offending profiles and is unlikely to be as high as is commonly assumed. 1 figure and 36 references