Contact sex offenders with adult and minor victims: Psychopathological and criminological differences.

BACKGROUND: Effective classification of individuals who commit sexual offences is important for their assessment, treatment, and risk management. Victim age has often been used as a distinguishing factor between perpetrators. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyse the distinctive psychopathological and criminological characteristics of contact sexual offenders with adult and minor victims. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The study involved 97 adult males who were serving a prison sentence in Spain for at least one contact sexual offence against an adult or a minor. METHODS: Researchers gathered data on criminological variables concerning the offender, victim, and modus operandi from prison records and interviews. Participants completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) in a second session, and between-group differences were analysed. RESULTS: Sex offenders with minor victims (SOMV) had significantly lower scores than sex offenders with adult victims (SOAV) on the Antisocial (r = -0.283, p = .005) and Sadistic (r = -0.209, p = .04) personality subscales, and on the Alcohol (r = -0.426, p < .001) and Drug dependence (r = -0.332, p = .001) syndrome subscales. SOAV were also more likely to use violence and/or intimidation, use a weapon, offend against female victims, offend against an intimate partner, commit their offences in public places, serve other ongoing prison sentences, and report a history of alcohol and substance abuse. SOMV were older and more likely to offend against family members. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there are key differences between SOAV and SOMV that should be considered in tailored prevention programmes for each subgroup of offenders.

Male Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: A Spanish Typology.

Typological approaches in research of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) have been discussed on the basis of their validity and applicability in professional practice; yet most of the published studies on offender typologies are limited due to the use of relatively small, non-representative samples. The current study explored typologies of IPVAW perpetrators in a large-scale representative Spanish sample (n = 9,731 cases extracted from the Comprehensive Monitoring System of Gender-Based Violence Cases; VioGén System), according to classic batterer typologies proposed by Holtzworth-Munroe and Stuart (1994). To this end, the risk factors measured by the most extended Spanish police recidivism risk assessment tool (Valoración Policial del Riesgo; VPR) were used as clustering variables. Multiple correspondence analyses revealed the appropriateness of a bi-dimensional model to conceptualize IPVAW offender typologies. Our four-group solution may be described based on the levels of instability and antisociality of IPVAW offenders, as objectively measured by VPR5.0 risk indicators. Statistically significant differences between the IPVAW suggested typologies were found on all indicators, except for the presence of perpetrators younger than 24 years old and the presence of bidirectional intimate partner violence, which were equally distributed across the four groups. High instability/low antisociality (HiLa) and high instability/high antisociality (HiHa) individuals shared most risk indicators related to the aggressor's psychological instability; whereas HiHa and low instability/high antisociality (LiHa) men endorsed more antisociality indicators than statistically expected. The low instability/low antisociality (LiLa) group was characterized by the less presence of VPR risk indicators. Although the four subtypes identified in our study resembled classic typologies, we propose a new subtype, with high levels of instability and antisociality (i.e., HiHa). This work contributes to existing knowledge of the heterogeneity of these men, by providing useful typologies that can help inform prevention and treatment.

Spanish Validation of the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool.

The current study examined the validity of the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT) in a sample of 304 men arrested in Spain for child pornography (CP) offenses, distinguishing between CP-exclusive offenders (n = 255) and CP offenders with other criminal involvement (n = 49). In our 5-year fixed follow-up analysis, we observed a 2.3% sexual recidivism rate for the whole sample (2.0% new CP offenses, 0.3% new contact sexual offenses). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses detected some relative predictive ability of the CPORT for CP recidivism outcomes when the Correlates of Admission of Sexual Interest in Children (CASIC) was used to replace missing CPORT Item 5. Specifically, both CPORT and CASIC total scores might help predict new CP offending among CP-exclusive offenders (area under the curve [AUC] = .57 and .70, respectively). Calibration analyses found that the observed recidivism rates were much lower than the expected recidivism rates presented by the tool developers, and, thus, suggest caution over the use of these norms for applied risk assessment. Our findings provide, to some extent, preliminary evidence of CPORT cross-cultural validity.

Criminological differences between child pornography offenders arrested in Spain.

BACKGROUND: Lack of studies on CP offenders from non-English speaking countries motivated the analysis of the profile of adult men arrested in Spain for such crimes (N = 347). OBJECTIVE: The current study examined differences between groups of CP users according to their criminal history (i.e., CP-only offenders, CP offenders with other nonviolent or non-sexually violent crimes, and dual offenders). METHODS: Analyses of case investigation files were performed across seven key areas: (1) sociodemographic characteristics, (2) criminological data, (3) characteristics of index CP offending, (4) characteristics of CP collections, (5) access to children, (6) indication of pedophilic or hebephilic interests, and (7) recidivism outcomes. RESULTS: CP-only offenders presented with fewer prior criminal records and lower general (6.7%) and violent (1.1%) recidivism rates. They were also less likely to be arrested for CP production, although they had greater access to children living in their residence. CP offenders with other nonviolent or non-sexually violent crimes exhibited characteristics on a continuum between the other two groups. Dual offenders were more likely to have prior criminal records for sexual offenses and higher sexual recidivism rates (16.7%). 55.6% had produced their own CP material, and they were more likely to have content depicting boys. They were also more likely to admit or be diagnosed with pedophilic/hebephilic interests, and they also had the largest proportion of legal child-related content (72.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Authors conclude there are significant differences between dual and CP-only offenders which suggests a need for specialized treatment and risk assessment tools.

Effect of treatment on sex offenders’ recidivism: a meta-analysis / Efecto del tratamiento sobre la reincidencia de delincuentes sexuales: un meta-análisis

This meta-analysis has the aim of measuring the effect of treatment on sex offenders. After a systematic review of the recent literature, seventeen studies were selected, containing a total sample of 6,681 sex offenders. The rates of sexual recidivism (13.12% vs. 17.94%), violent - including sexual- (25.5% vs. 29.1%) and general -any type of recidivism- (46.53% vs. 52.41%) of treated offenders were less than those of the control groups. The effectiveness of the treatment was clear in reducing the rates of sexual (OR= .69; p < .05) and general (OR = .66; p < .05) recidivism of the subjects treated, but not the rates of violent recidivism. This results demonstrated the ability of psychological treatments for reducing the risk of sexual and general recidivism of sex offenders. However, the interpretation of such results requires caution, given that an independent analysis of the studies of a good methodological quality did not show significant effects of treatment. The need for new and better comparison studies to assess treatment effect is clear, especially in Europe (AU)

Este meta-análisis tiene por objetivo medir el efecto del tratamiento en delincuentes sexuales. Tras una revisión sistemática de la literatura reciente, fueron seleccionados diecisiete estudios, contando con una muestra total de 6,681 delincuentes sexuales. Las tasas de reincidencia sexual (13.12% vs. 17.94%), violenta -incluyendo la sexual- (25.5% vs. 29.1%) y general -cualquier tipo de reincidencia- (46.53% vs. 52.41%) de los delincuentes tratados fueron inferiores a las de los grupos control. Se evidenció la eficacia del tratamiento en la reducción de las tasas de reincidencia sexual (OR = .69; p< .05) y general (OR = .66; p < .05) de los sujetos tratados, pero no en las tasas de reincidencia violenta. Estos resultados confirman la capacidad de los tratamientos psicológicos para reducir el riesgo de reincidencia sexual y general de los delincuentes sexuales. No obstante, la interpretación de tales resultados requiere cautela, pues el análisis independiente de los estudios con buena calidad metodológica no mostró efectos significativos del tratamiento. La necesidad de nuevos y mejores estudios resulta evidente, especialmente en Europa (AU)