Wortley, Richard;
Findlater, Donald;
Bailey, Alexandra;
Zuhair, Dana;
(2024)
Accessing child sexual abuse material: Pathways to offending and online behaviour.
Child Abuse & Neglect
, 154
, Article 106936. 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106936.
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Abstract
Background: Most research examining the consumption of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has focused on offenders' demographic and psychological characteristics. While such research may assist in the development of therapeutic interventions with known offenders, it has little to offer the development of interventions for the vast majority of offenders who are never caught. Objective: To learn more about the offending strategies of CSAM offenders, in order to inform prevention efforts to deter, disrupt, and divert individuals from their pursuit of CSAM. Participants & setting: Seventy-five male CSAM offenders, who were living in the community and were voluntarily participating in a treatment programme. Methods: Participants completed a detailed self-report questionnaire focussing on their pathways to offending and their online behaviour. Results: Most participants reported that they did not initially seek out CSAM but that they first encountered it inadvertently or became curious after viewing legal pornography. Their involvement in CSAM subsequently progressed over time and their offending generally became more serious. The most notable feature of participants' online behaviour was the relative lack of sophisticated technical expertise. Opportunity and other situational factors emerged as mediators of offending frequency. Offending patterns were affected by participants' psychological states (e.g., depression, anger, stress), offline relationships and commitments (e.g., arguments with spouse, loss of job), and online experiences (e.g., blocked sites, viruses, warning messages). Conclusions: Findings suggest that many offenders are receptive to change and may be potentially diverted from their offending pathway.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Accessing child sexual abuse material: Pathways to offending and online behaviour |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106936 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106936 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Indecent images of children, Child sexual abuse material, CSAM, Sexual offending prevention, Sex offending pathways |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Security and Crime Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10194959 |
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