Purpose: The current study examines significant variations in criminal achievement across sex offenders. To examine the "successful" sex offender, the study proposes a concept of achievement in sexual offending defined as the ability to maximize the payoffs of a crime opportunity while minimizing the costs. Methods: The study is based on a sample of convicted adult male sex offenders using retrospective longitudinal data. Results: The study findings show a wide variation in criminal achievement, a variation that is not correlated with the severity of sentences meted out or the actuarial risk scores obtained by these offenders. Those offenders who specialize in sex crimes were shown to be the most productive and least detected offenders. Two types of successful offenders emerge, the first relying on his conventional background in targeting a victim that can be repeatedly abused for a long period without detection. The second is a younger offender that is successful in the sense of being able to complete aggressions on multiple victims. Conclusions: Results suggest that the successful sex offender is not "detected" once he enters the criminal justice system, nor is he handled in a way that may deter him from sexually reoffending in the future.REFERENCE: Lussier, P., Bouchard, M. & Beauregard, E. (2011). Patterns of criminal achievement in sexual offending: Unravelling the "successful" sex offender. Journal of Criminal Justice, 39,[433][434][435][436][437][438][439][440][441][442][443][444] Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to P. Lussier, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, 1030, ave. des Sciences-Humaines, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada. Tel.: +1 418 656 2131x5978. E-mail address: patrick.lussier@svs.ulaval.ca.
PATTERNS OF CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT IN SEXUAL OFFENDING 2Patterns of criminal achievement in sexual offending: Unravelling the "successful" sex offender After more than 50 years of research on sexual recidivism, researchers have been unable to provide a formal evidence-based explanation of the criminal activity of sexual offenders. The risk factor approach taken and pursued over the years have restrained possibilities of understanding the criminal career dynamics of individuals committing sex offences and recent empirical studies have emphasized the need to correct this (e.g., Amirault & Lussier, 2011; Lussier & Davies, in press;Lussier, Tzoumakis, Cale, & Amirault, 2010). In that regard, this study is a departure from past research on this issue. The aim is not to identify a predictive model of sexual recidivism but rather to understand what is being predicted and who is being identified in the process. Sexual recidivism or in more technical terms, sexual rearrest and sexual reconviction, have become the gold standard measures to determine risk. While researchers have acknowledged that "official recidivism" carries an important limitation (i.e., it measures official reoffending or the likelihood or being caught, again), it has served to establish the risk of recidivism, the prevalen...