Public perception of individuals who commit Child Sexual Abuse Material offences: Exploring the impact of demographic variables and cross-national differences.

BACKGROUND: Lay perceptions of persons who download and distribute Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is an underexplored subject. There is a need for understanding the factors that influence perceptions as the public perceptions have implications for endorsement of sex offender rehabilitation that in turn can influence the availability of treatment programs and stigma for help-seeking. OBJECTIVE: To explore public perceptions of individuals that commit child sexual abuse offences, to compare the results to those obtained in a large US sample, and to explore associations between demographic variables, general perceptions and endorsement of imprisonment and treatment for individuals that commit CSAM offences. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: An online survey were distributed in Norway in February 2023. 618 individuals responded, 76 % were female, mean age 34.99 (SD = 14.23), the majority (>70 %) had higher education, and 44 % had children. RESULTS: Consistent with prior research, the public perceptions overestimated the risk of future contact offences and recidivism. Women overestimated the percentage of risk of contact offences and pedophilic interest more than men. The overestimation was significantly less in this sample compared to the US sample (d = 0.39-0.96). Those working with online child abuse had perceptions of persons committing CSAM offences that were more aligned with empirical findings. Demographic variables were only marginally associated with endorsement for treatment and imprisonment, except for having children, which was associated with endorsement of imprisonment. Perceived risk of contact offences, pedophilic preference, and assumed childhood sexual victimization were associated with perceptions of individuals committing CSAM offences as different than those committing physical sexual abuse and both endorsement of treatment and imprisonment. CONCLUSIONS: The perceptions of those who commit CSAM offences showed a stronger association with endorsement for treatment and imprisonment than demographic variables.

Technical profiles of child sexual exploitation material offenders.

The idiographic technical profiles of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) offenders provide insight into their behaviours and context for their interactions with technology, but minimal quantitative work has been done to evaluate their sociability, technical ability and technophilia compared to non-offenders. This work used an online survey to compare an offender group consisting of English-speaking adults previously convicted of CSEM offenses (N = 78) with a reference population of non-offenders (N = 254). The survey assessed sociability, technical ability and technophilia through self-rating and information on occupation, level of education and device ownership. The study found that CSEM offenders had slightly lower sociability than non-offenders, though not at a level of clinical interest. Additionally, CSEM offenders had no statistically significant difference in technical ability and lower overall technophilia when compared to non-offenders. This study fails to support popular perceptions of CSEM offenders being technically savvy loners who are early adopters of new technologies.