Offending Patterns of Serial Sex Offenders: Escalation, De‐escalation, and Consistency of Sexually Intrusive and Violent Behaviours

Abstract

A series of stranger sexual assaults poses considerable obstacles for law enforcement officials. One such preoccupation is concerned with whether or not the offender will escalate in the severity of his behaviours with subsequent victims. The current study uses transition matrices to address whether or not the offending patterns of 72 serial stranger sex offenders change from one victim to the next as it pertains to their sexual acts and level of physical force used during the crime. Findings indicate that stability, specifically the offender's intrusive sexual acts and use of physical force, and versatility are present in this sample's offending patterns. To explain changes in offending patterns between victims, multinomial regression analyses indicate that situational factors and modus operandi strategies are important considerations. Implications for investigations are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Same-sex child molestation within the Boy Scouts of America initiation and termination in victim narratives.

“…To be specific, if an offender has used physical force against one victim, then it is less likely that the offender uses a different manner (e.g., seduction strategies) to commit another crime against another victim. This finding is consistent with the behaviors of serial sex offenders in stranger rape cases that they exhibited stable behavioral patterns across all victims (Hewitt & Beauregard, 2014).…”

“…In contrast, Leclerc et al (2009) indicated that aggressive behaviors employed by the victim were likely to increase offender's physical force, which also resulted in more severe injury on victims. In a similar vein, Hewitt and Beauregard (2014) found that victim resistance made offenders employ physical force greater than necessary to subdue their victims.…”

“…However, overall, offenders' use of weapons resulted in less resistance from victims, hence, less use of physical force (Hewitt & Beauregard, 2014). By and large, forceful resistance strategies were successful in lessening the risk of rape.…”

“…For example, studies thus far have concentrated on sexual violence against female adults (see Beauregard, Rossmo, & Proulx, 2007;Beauregard, 2010;Canter, Bennel, Alison, & Reddy, 2003;Deslauriers-Varin & beauregard, 2010;Warren et al,1998;Hewitt, Beauregard, & Davies, 2012;Hewitt & Beauregard, 2014;Weinrott & Saylor, 1991), which might be explained by the availability of data and frequency of crime occurrence (see Smallbone & Wortley, 2004).…”

“…Especially, those who had male child victims showed little fluctuation in the degree of their violent behaviors to engage in sexual contact with their victims (Hewitt & Beauregard, 2014).…”