Citation

Davis N, Lennings C, Green T. SAANZ 2018; 2018: e73.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Australian and New Zealand Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study compared the characteristics of 136 (M = 46 years, range 21–79) online child sexual abuse offenders in Australia based on theories of characteristics of child sexual abuse contact offenders. Using data gleaned from Australian Federal Police investigations, characteristics that may influence offenders with a preference for increasingly graphic and violent child sex abuse images (based on the Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe Project (COPINE) typology of image preferences) were analysed. Important findings were the tendency for escalation in image preference to be associated with callousness in offenders; and a preference for images, video and written stories being associated with a preference for COPINE Levels 8, 9 and 10. Post hoc analysis investigating victim age, gender, format of material and level of deviance (as shown by the highest COPINE ratings) revealed that offenders who preferred all age groups also preferred all genders and formats of material.