The proliferation of indecent images of children (IIOCs) on the Internet has exceeded the resources required to investigate suspects effectively. This article examines the validity of the Kent Internet Risk Assessment Tool—Version 2 (KIRAT– 2), an evidence-based framework for prioritizing IIOC suspects according to their risk of committing contact offenses against children. Data were obtained from 374 police files (11 police forces across the United Kingdom) corresponding to individuals who were convicted for IIOC offense(s) during the period 2001–2013. Some 170 offenders had convictions or allegations of contact sexual offenses against children; police defined these as higher risk of contact offending (HR) as opposed to the remaining 204 individuals without convictions or allegations of contact sexual offenses (lower risk of contact offending, LR). We coded 166 variables previously discussed in the literature or from law enforcement experience that may discriminate dual from noncontact offenders. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was conducted to test which variables or combination of variables discriminated between HR and LR offenders. The final model, represented as a phased decision tree, uses 17 variables with 4 filters or decision steps examining previous convictions, access to children, current evidence of both online and offline behavior, and other relevant factors. The model classified 97.6% of HR within the higher risk levels (high or very high) and 62.3% of LR within the lower risk levels (low or medium). Findings are discussed in terms of contribution to the Internet sex offending risk assessment literature and practical implications for police forces.

The development of a new standardised investigator-based interview, PACE (Psychosocial Assessment of Childhood Experiences), for the assessment of acute life events and long-term psychosocial experiences is described. An application of PACE to a sample of 84 children referred to psychiatric clinics and 22 general population controls, is presented. Reliability was assessed using a separate clinic sample of 15 child-parent pairs. The findings showed that PACE has satisfactory reliability and discriminant validity.

The concept of the female sex offender (FSO) is a relatively new phenomenon within the social research literature. Studies of female rape, male rape, pedophilia, and juvenile sex offenders have suggested that different styles of offending are reflected in the different types of behaviors committed by offenders at the crime scene. These studies suggest that there are three distinct themes of behavior: Hostility, Impersonal, and Involvement. Multidimensional analysis is carried out on 35 crime scene behaviors of 73 FSOs from U.K. and U.S. law reports. The proposed framework was found to be a useful way of classifying FSOs with 84% displaying a dominant theme. These resulted in 52% classified as displaying Involvement, 17% as Control, and 15% as Hostility. Finally, the implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Wild-caught, captive silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis, Zosteropidae) were given choice tests to determine how some traits of fleshy fruits interact to influence fruit selection by this facultative frugivore. When given a choice between red and white fruits of the polymorphic Fragrant saltbush (Rhagodia parabolica, Chenopodiaceae), the silvereyes' preference for the red fruits was enhanced when they were twice as abundant, but reversed when they were only half as abundant, as the white fruits. Given a choice between red and white artificial fruits, silvereyes showed a 2.3-fold preference for the latter when both were equally conspicuous; this preference was significantly enhanced when the white fruits were relatively more conspicuous (greater contrast with the background colour), but eliminated when they were relatively more cryptic (less contrast with the background colour). A third experiment showed that the sugar concentration of artificial fruits influenced the birds' fruit colour preference, enhancing it by a factor of 8 when the preferred colour was relatively sugar-rich, but eliminating it when the preferred colour was relatively sugar-poor. The results are discussed in the context of current hypotheses about fruit selection processes in birds.

In 2013, there were an estimated 50,000 individuals involved in downloading and sharing indecent images of children (IIOC) in the United Kingdom (UK). This poses challenges for limited police resources. We argue that police officers can make most effective use of limited resources by prioritizing those offenders who pose the greatest risk of contact offending, by nature of demonstrable pedophilia, hebephilia or dual offending status and thus, those at highest risk must be dealt with first. What is currently lacking is a clear idea of the potential scale of the problem in socio-economic terms and why, therefore, it is so important that evidence-based approaches to offender detection and investigation continue to be a top priority for funders and policy makers. A systematic literature review was undertaken to address two related questions. First, what is the scale of the problem in the UK, in terms of the number of pedophilic and hebephilic individuals who pose a risk of contact offending against a child? Second, what is the potential socio-economic burden generated by the national IIOC suspect pool if left unattended to by targeted police action? Applying population estimates of pedophilia and hebephilia to the male population (16–89 years), we estimate there are between 2,365–5,991 males with paedophila and 12,218–30,952 males with hebephilia who are likely contact offenders. Applying average prevalence and incidence based costing methods to a conservative estimate of one victim per offender, the combined socio-economic burden from these persons could amount to £236-£597 million (incident costs) increasing to £2.9-£7.3 billion (lifetime costs; £3.3-£8.3 billion including QALY measures). Applying the same costs to CEOP (2013) estimate of 50,000 IIOC offenders we estimate that between 6,000 and 27,500 dual offenders could have already committed past contact offenses, contributing an economic burden of between £97–£445 million (incident costs) increasing to £1.2–£5.4 billion (lifetime costs; £1.4–£6.2 billion including QALY measures). Future contact offenses could contribute a further burden of £16–£18.6 million (incident costs) increasing to £198–£227 million (lifetime costs; £226–£260 million including QALY measures). Drawing upon these findings, we argue for the benefits of a research-informed prioritization approach to target IIOC offenders.