Drawing on data from a sample of 213 male parental child sex offenders referred for assessment to a diversion program in New South Wales (Australia), this study augments knowledge about sex offender typologies by identifying features of parental child sex offenders.
This subgroup of parental child sex offenders was distinguished from other sex offender subtypes because of their close and ongoing relationship with the victim as a parent, the gender of victims (girls), the age of victims (prepubescent children), and the low ratio of offenders with pedophilic urges. As noted by other research, parental child sex offenders are older than extrafamilial sex offenders (mean age at referral was 39 years old). Also, they were usually in a marital or defacto relationship and had participated in long-term intimate relationships with adult sexual partners. In addition, they generally maintained steady employment and were often the main income earners in the family. The study notes that risks posed by parental child sex offenders are comparatively low, but if unaddressed in treatment, harms to victims can be serious due to the repeated victimization. Contrary to the common public perception that child sex offenders are consistently at high risk of sexual reoffending, studies of the diversion program in New South Wales (Cedar Cottage Pretrial Diversion of Offenders Program) have shown that it has reduced sexual reoffense rates from 13.5 percent to 7.5 percent for parental child sexual abuse offenders. Biological and non-biological fathers have benefited equally from the intervention. The author advises that treatment should target criminogenic needs in general as well as those directly related to the intrafamilial sex offenses. 28 references and 5 figures