Child Sex Offender Demographics: Towards an Improved Understanding

Since the 1990s, child sex offenders have been considered one of the ultimate dangerous criminal classes (Lynch, 2002), and given the complex nature of these crimes, society regularly asks how best to protect children from sexual abuse. This question is becoming ever more pertinent, as almost daily news agencies around the world cover new and historical cases of alleged child sexual abuse (CSA). This indicates that reporting rates may be improving, possibly as a result of campaigns fighting CSA, but proving abuse has taken place, sometimes decades after the event, is extremely challenging. Mechanisms to reliably identify offenders could not be more important socially. As the number of reported cases is set to increase far into the future, the identification of child sex offenders will be a key investigative priority for many years to come. An essential aspect of successful prosecution is, of course, how to identify those most at risk of offending, as well as those who have offended; prevention is ultimately preferable as there is no cure in this situation, many victims never recover from the abuse, and the events can haunt them into adulthood. This chapter will review the information currently available for offender demographics, with a view to aiding our ability to identify and manage high-risk offenders.