Predicting hands-on child sexual offenses among possessors of Internet child pornography

Bibliographic Data

ID12434015
AuthorsAustin F Lee (Harvard University, corresponding author), Nien-Chen Li, Nien‐Chen Li (Boston University), Raina V Lamade (0000-0001-8030-9881, Fairleigh Dickinson University), Raina Lamade, Ann Schuler (Justice Resource Institute), Robert A Prentky (Fairleigh Dickinson University)
Year2012
Volume18
Issue4
Pages644-672
Publication date2012-04-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychology Public Policy and Law (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1076-8971 • E-ISSN: 1939-1528
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/a0027517
OpenAlexW1968879551
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited1

The recent Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Comstock (2010) upheld the constitutionality of The Adam Walsh Act, which provides for civil commitment of child pornography (CP) offenders certified as sexually dangerous, thereby approving litigation of all such prisoners in the federal system. The two studies reported here sought to address the question: What is the likelihood that an individual convicted of child pornography offenses has a prior history of a hands-on sexual offense involving a child or has a high probability of committing such an offense? Our sample consisted of 349 participants: 113 who committed an Internet sexual offense only and no other known or self-reported hands-on sexual offense, 176 child molesters who reported no Internet sexual offense, and 60 child molesters that reported committing an Internet sexual offense. Study 1 yielded two scales, one reflecting Antisocial Behavior (AB) and one reflecting Internet Preoccupation (IP). Those two scales predicted membership in the combined sample of child molesters with a high degree of accuracy (c = 0.75). Study two revealed that all three groups were discrete with respect to AB and IP. By increasing the IP scale by 1 point, the odds of being an IO rather than a CM increased by 86%. The plotted conditional probabilities increased linearly as values on the AB scale increase, from 0.27 when AB = 0 to 0.84 when AB = 13. Our results are discussed in terms of risk discrimination among possessors of child pornography, relevance of risk to the statutory third prong element of serious difficulty, and the policy implications of the findings reported here

Child pornography · Criminology · Developmental psychology · Pornography · Psychoanalysis · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology · Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub