Predicting recidivism among adult male child pornography offenders: Development of the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT).

Abstract

In this study, we developed a structured risk checklist, the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT), to predict any sexual recidivism among adult male offenders with a conviction for child pornography offenses. We identified predictors of sexual recidivism using a 5-year fixed follow-up analysis from a police case file sample of 266 adult male child pornography offenders in the community after their index offense. In our 5-year follow-up, 29% committed a new offense, and 11% committed a new sexual offense, with 3% committing a new contact sexual offense against a child and 9% committing a new child pornography offense. The CPORT items comprised younger offender age, any prior criminal history, any contact sexual offending, any failure on conditional release, indication of sexual interest in child pornography material or prepubescent or pubescent children, more boy than girl content in child pornography, and more boy than girl content in other child depictions. The CPORT was significantly associated with any sexual recidivism, with moderate predictive accuracy, and thus has promise in the risk assessment of adult male child pornography offenders with further cross-validation.

Understanding Online Child Sexual Exploitation Offenses

“…This suggests that the mixed subgroup has more opportunities to sexually abuse the child in person [18••, 26]. However, findings by Seto and Eke (2015) suggest that there is no significant difference in access to children between the online offenders and mixed offenders. CP offenders were simply less likely to initiate sexual solicitations [30].…”

“…Online CP offenders were also more likely to have victims of both genders [27], whereas mixed offenders were more likely to report having a homosexual or bisexual orientation [18••]. Notably, 90 % of the online offenders in the study possessed adult pornography [30]. An attempt at categorizing CP offenders using behavioral analysis based on the Internet browsing history of a suspected CP offender has been recently explored [37].…”

“…The authors found that CP offenders had a 12 % recidivism rate, while in-person sex offenses against a child had a 4 % recidivism rate [30]. After about 5.5 years of release, the CP offenders were also less likely than the in-person offenders to commit a probation violation.…”

Predicting Sex Offender Recidivism: Using the Federal Post-Conviction Risk Assessment Instrument to Assess the Likelihood of Recidivism Among Federal Sex Offenders

“…This is an important issue because relatively few research efforts have explored whether a general risk assessment instrument like the PCRA can predict reoffending activity among this specific and emerging subset of sex offenders Eke et al 2011;Seto & Eke 2015). This is an important issue because relatively few research efforts have explored whether a general risk assessment instrument like the PCRA can predict reoffending activity among this specific and emerging subset of sex offenders Eke et al 2011;Seto & Eke 2015).…”

“…This part of the analysis is particularly important because, while there is a growing body of research attempting to assess risk factors associated with online child pornography offenders Eke et al 2011;Eke & Seto 2012;Faust et al 2014;McCarthy 2010;Seto & Eke 2015), few attempts have been made to apply a generalized risk/needs tool like the PCRA to this specific subset of sex offenders. Specifically, it will explore the PCRA's capacity to predict several types of recidivism outcomes for federal sex offenders, including arrests involving any offenses, violent (nonsexual) offenses, sexual offenses, or probation revocations.…”