Grosey's Messages

Types of offenders

There is a community perception that every person who sexually abuses a child is a paedophile. This is not correct. Not all child sexual offenders are paedophiles. Rather paedophiles are a sub-set of child sexual offenders.110 Most child sexual offenders who come to police attention are opportunistic or situational perpetrators who do not meet the clinical diagnostic criteria for paedophilia. Opportunistic or situational

perpetrators often do not have a sexual interest in children and engage in child sexual abuse when an opportunity arises and/or due to the circumstances they are in.111 They are more likely to lack appropriate personal controls and be impulsive.112

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) noted some key differences between the two. They considered that:

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Opportunistic perpetrators may be more likely to be involved in general offending other than child sexual abuse, they are less likely to intentionally create situations where abuse occurs and be less likely to use

grooming strategies.113 They will abuse children where there is an opportunity to do so.

Situational perpetrators tend to abuse children in response to things that are occurring in their own life.114

This might include a lack of a positive adult relationships, low self-esteem or social isolation.115

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition) describes a person as having Paedophilic Disorder when they have intense and recurrent sexual urges towards, and fantasies about, prepubescent children that have either been acted upon or which cause the person distress or interpersonal difficulties.116 They can also be referred to as fixed or persistent perpetrators.117

Put simply, paedophilia is a sexual preference for prepubescent children.118 The person can be either attracted specifically to males or females, or both.119 One indicator of paedophilic disorder is the extensive use of child exploitation material (CEM) given individuals usually choose the kind of pornography that resembles their

sexual interests.120

People usually become aware of their sexual interest in children around the time of puberty and it appears to be a lifelong condition.121 Most of what we know about paedophiles comes from clinical or criminal justice samples, from men who have already committed sexual offences against children.122 Given the known underreporting of child sexual abuse, the prevalence of paedophilia in the general population is largely unknown with the highest

possible reported prevalence in the male population being approximately three to five per cent.123

Paedophiles have a higher recidivism rate compared to opportunistic or situational offenders due to their sexual preference towards children.124 However, if a perpetrator is ready, willing and able to engage in sexual offender programs they can learn to manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards children and lead a healthy lifestyle. There are significant challenges to building our understanding of how to intervene or work with people that abuse children.125 This is impacted by inaccurate self-reporting by perpetrators who have been caught, including about other abuse they may have previously committed which has not been disclosed or detected.126 This has serious implications for approaches to risk assessment, treatment planning, sentencing decisions and supervisory conditions.127