Post by delmonico on May 30, 2010 19:18:47 GMT -6
Hi Everyone -
Thanks for starting this topic. Elizabeth and I have been presenting on these ideas for a while, but as everyone has mentioned, we often feel like we are spinning our wheels when it comes to understanding the csai (child sex abuse image) offfender. While there is little peer-reviewed, replicated, research to guide our thinking, it is a growing body of literature - Seto, Middleton, Quayle, Webb, etc. have all initiated some quantitative and qualitative research in this area. The idea of starting this list could really be helpful to this field as we try to wrap our brains around this group of offenders, that we believe have some distinct characteristics.
Here are some of our initial thoughts:
* There are really two major issues that probably should be looked at separately. (1) what percent of child-porn offenders have hands-on offenses in their history, and (2) how do we conduct accurate risk assessment for future hands-on offenses for cyber-offenders?
* The percentages range from about 10% up to 90% of csai offenders who have prior hands-on offenses - which means a couple things - we have not operationalized our definitions of how to measure this phenomenon, and we need more scientifically sound research to be replicated in order for it to have meaning.
* In terms of future risk - Seto has some great writing/research in this area and all that we have read suggests there is no direct correlation between viewing child abuse images and committing an offense. There are a number of factors that might be more predictive than others, but viewing child pornography tends not to show up as one of these factors.
In order to contribute to this ongoing discussion, Elizabeth and I are working to set up a resource webpage where we can post some of the current literature, prior ATSA Listserv posts we have saved on this topic, and other resources (please make suggestions or send items for the webpage to me). We'll post here again when it is up and running.
Again, thanks to everyone for the discussion so far. We look forward to continuing and contributing to it.
David Delmonico & Elizabeth Griffin
Thanks for starting this topic. Elizabeth and I have been presenting on these ideas for a while, but as everyone has mentioned, we often feel like we are spinning our wheels when it comes to understanding the csai (child sex abuse image) offfender. While there is little peer-reviewed, replicated, research to guide our thinking, it is a growing body of literature - Seto, Middleton, Quayle, Webb, etc. have all initiated some quantitative and qualitative research in this area. The idea of starting this list could really be helpful to this field as we try to wrap our brains around this group of offenders, that we believe have some distinct characteristics.
Here are some of our initial thoughts:
* There are really two major issues that probably should be looked at separately. (1) what percent of child-porn offenders have hands-on offenses in their history, and (2) how do we conduct accurate risk assessment for future hands-on offenses for cyber-offenders?
* The percentages range from about 10% up to 90% of csai offenders who have prior hands-on offenses - which means a couple things - we have not operationalized our definitions of how to measure this phenomenon, and we need more scientifically sound research to be replicated in order for it to have meaning.
* In terms of future risk - Seto has some great writing/research in this area and all that we have read suggests there is no direct correlation between viewing child abuse images and committing an offense. There are a number of factors that might be more predictive than others, but viewing child pornography tends not to show up as one of these factors.
In order to contribute to this ongoing discussion, Elizabeth and I are working to set up a resource webpage where we can post some of the current literature, prior ATSA Listserv posts we have saved on this topic, and other resources (please make suggestions or send items for the webpage to me). We'll post here again when it is up and running.
Again, thanks to everyone for the discussion so far. We look forward to continuing and contributing to it.
David Delmonico & Elizabeth Griffin