Working with adults who have sexually abused a child

Motivations for sexual abuse

People who sexually abuse children are a heterogeneous population and not always motivated by sexual attraction to children. Research suggests sexual abusers are motivated by a wide range of goals, including:

• desire for power or control
• sexual interest, arousal or gratification
• to cause harm to the child or someone who cares for the child
• mistakes in understanding about children
• seeking affection, intimacy or connection
• jealousy, revenge or anger
• money or notoriety (Eldridge et al.). 

The following 1-minute video by the Lucy Faithful Foundation provides a succinct overview about people who abuse children, aimed to support parents to be protective.  

Social factors and characteristics can also act as motivators or inhibitors to child sexual abuse perpetration. These commonly include factors related to ideas of masculinity, the sexualisation of children and repressive social norms related to sexuality (Finkelhor).

Research suggests motivations and related factors may vary across genders. (Refer to Women who sexually abuse children.)

Social and developmental background

Commonly identified characteristics of sexual abusers include:

• under the age of 25 years

• high levels of pornography use and a high degree of adult sexual discourse

• experiences of neglect during childhood

• a history of other violent and abusive behaviour (Quadara et al. (a)).

Research shows men in Australia who have sexually abused a child and have sexual feelings towards children are more likely than other men to:

• be married or living with a female partner
• have higher levels of social support
• be working with children
• earn a higher income
• be active on social media and use encrypted apps
• watch violent pornography and pay for sexual content online
• have experienced sexual abuse in childhood (Salter et al.).

Adults who sexually abuse children in institutional settings and adults who abuse multiple victims for long periods without detection appear to present with different risk factors to other abusers. These abusers are more likely to be employed in professional roles and present with fewer antisocial and factors that lead to criminal behaviour (Nicol et al.). 

Thinking errors and underlying beliefs 

Everyone has ideas and beliefs about how things should be; about how people should act and about ethical and taboo behaviours. All personal beliefs and values are designed to maintain connection with other people. The development of personal values and beliefs can be complex and lifelong. When people’s beliefs and values are based on experiences of trauma, low empathy and self-interest, they can become abusive.   

Adults who sexually abuse children often display distorted thinking, which may involve justifying or rationalising their actions by minimising harm, blaming the victim, or perceiving their behaviour as acceptable. 

Research has identified common patterns of underlying beliefs, known as implicit theories, that contribute to these thinking errors. Understanding these beliefs can help child protection practitioners recognise and respond to the increased risk of future abusive behaviour.

In working with people who use abusive behaviours, it is vital practitioners understand their own experiences and beliefs and do not apply their own values to the people they are working with. Effective assessment and intervention rely on unbiased and factual information about problematic beliefs that enable abusive behaviour.   

The table below outlines some of the common beliefs you may observe and has ideas about how you can engage with these ideas to understand the motivations and change capacity of the person you are working with:

(Marziano et al., Finkelhor)

Theories of adult sexual offending

There are various psychological and criminological theories that attempt to explain child sexual abuse. It is widely acknowledged situational factors combined with individual and social vulnerabilities contribute to sexually abusive behaviour. Two prominent theories are the:

• integrated life-course theory proposed by Smallbone and Cale
• four-factor preconditions model developed by Finkelhor. 

Integrated life-course developmental theory of sexual offending

This theory suggests sexual offending is not a single pathway but rather a range of pathways which differ in terms of onset, duration and severity. Several risk factors may increase the likelihood including individual, ecological and situational factors which interact to create circumstances in which an adult sexually abuses a child (Smallbone and Cale). 

Positive developmental experiences are understood to constrain potential abusive behaviour while negative experiences may create vulnerabilities contributing to abusive behaviour. 

Factors such as family, peer and social systems may create risk or protective factors that interact with opportunity and precipitating factors leading to sexual abuse occurrence or restraint. 

This theory suggests future risk of sexually abusive behaviour is not static and may change over time, influenced by a number of factors such as age, life events, previous responses received to abusive behaviour and future contextual circumstances. 

The Four-Factor Preconditions Model of sexual offending

This model proposes four preconditions must be fulfilled for child sexual abuse to take place, and these factors operate on an individual and sociological level (Finkelhor). The following table has been adapted from Quadara et al. (a).

Victim consistency and preference

Research does not support an assumption all people who sexually abuse children have stable, exclusive or consistent victim preferences. Numerous studies have highlighted many child sexual abusers have engaged in sexual abuse towards children of varied ages, genders and relational contexts (Scurich and Gongola).

Those who do have preferred victim preferences will often sexually abuse other children if access to their preferred victims is restricted, or if opportunity presents, and victim preferences often change over time.

Child sexual grooming

‘Sexual abuse is characterised, not just by physical abuse or violence, but by incredibly meticulous, calculated psychological manipulation… My abuser saw an opportunity to tell me everything I wanted to hear, putting me on a pedestal, praising me, telling me that I didn't need my family.

He gradually and subtly started introducing the concept of sex into conversation, exposing me to sexual content: movies or books or whatever. I was exposed to blatant examples of pop culture that glorified sexual relationships between really young people and much older people.

He also was an expert at maintaining control, striking a perfect balance between causing pain and providing relief from that pain, so that I was programmed to feel intense confusion and guilt if I ever spoke up.’ 

Grace Tame - Survivor, runner, daughter and Australian of the Year. 
Published at The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation.

The following 8-minute video dives deep into how grooming works, its subtle warning signs, and the devastating effects it has on the brain.

Sexual grooming is a deceptive process used by child sexual abusers to facilitate sexual contact with a child while simultaneously avoiding disclosure or detection (Winters et al. (a)). 

Sexual grooming behaviours cause significant disruption to the child’s understanding of abuse and relationships with adults who would otherwise afford them protection. It is important to note that grooming is based on intent or motivation to abuse, not whether sexual abuse occurs (National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse).

The process of sexual grooming is commonly understood to include all or some of the following behaviours. Not all sexual abusers will use all these behaviours, and the process of grooming can occur in a relatively short period of time. 

Indicators of sexual grooming

Identifying grooming behaviours is difficult as many behaviours used to sexually groom children also occur in non-abusive relationships and can be appropriate care and affection. Adults are more likely to identify sexual grooming behaviours involving desensitisation to touch, and less likely to recognise more subtle indicators of sexual grooming (Steedman et al.). 

Research has identified the following behaviours which are more likely to occur in the context of child sexual abuse (Winters and Leglic). 

If an adult is observed or reported to be engaging in one or more of these behaviours with a child, consider the likelihood sexual grooming may have occurred. Speak with the child to see if there are other reasons for the behaviours of concern. 

Adapt the response to suit to the nature, type, and frequency of the behaviour, as well as situational and contextual factors, and the impact these are having on the child.

Be cautious as the alleged abuser may attempt to manipulate child protection assessments. People who sexually abuse children are highly motivated to conceal their behaviour and will often suggest and explain their behaviour is misunderstood or misinterpreted by the child or others. 

Keep the child’s experience central to the assessment of harm and risk. While some behaviours linked to sexual grooming can also occur in healthy, non-abusive family dynamics, the key consideration is if the child experienced the behaviour as sexual, uncomfortable or unsafe.

Impacts of sexual grooming

Adults who engage in sexual grooming often manipulate the child, their environment, family members, and others in the community. As a result, the child is less likely to: 

• disclose experiences of sexual abuse
• receive a believing, empathetic and protective response when the abuse is discovered or disclosed. 

Children who experience sexual grooming as part of child sexual abuse may face a higher risk of severe long-term impacts than those who are not groomed. The victim may experience more confusion, guilt, and shame, as a consequence of the psychological manipulation and coercion innate to the sexual grooming process. These factors are related to increased post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal behaviour among trauma survivors (Cunningham). 

When an abuser also manipulates the child’s parents, community, or support workers, the child’s disclosure may be dismissed, minimised, or ignored. Poor or inappropriate responses to disclosure can worsen the child’s trauma.

Technology facilitated child sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse can occur in-person and online. More than half of all children in Australia experience online sexual abuse such as non-consensual sharing of sexual images and online sexual solicitation by an adult (Walsh et al.). 
Technology facilitated child sexual abuse is any behaviour where a child experiences sexual abuse through any online platform or digital application. Common online child sexual abuse behaviours include:

• viewing, creating or sharing child sexual abuse material
• arranging to meet up with a child in person for sexual purposes
• engaging in sexual conversations with a child online
• soliciting sexual images from a child
• engaging in sexual behaviour with a child via webcam
• sexually grooming a child online.

People who engage in these forms of child sexual abuse have caused harm to both the child involved and contributed to other children being at risk of sexual abuse. The absence of any physical component of sexual abuse cannot be assumed to suggest an absence of harm or risk of harm.

Children who are depicted in child sexual abuse material, whether the material depicts contact sexual abuse or not, often experience profound and lifelong trauma. These victim-survivors describe the ongoing impacts of the enduring nature of the material and the absence of justice due to many of their abusers never being detected. 

People who sexually exploit or abuse children often engage in online behaviours to access and entrap a child through online enticement, sextortion or by arranging to meet in person. 

Online enticement involves an individual communicating with someone believed to be a child via the internet with the intent to commit a sexual offence. 

Sextortion refers to the grooming of a child to take sexually explicit images or meet face-to-face with someone for sexual purposes, or to engage in a sexual conversation online or, in some instances, to exchange the child’s sexual images. (Refer to Technology facilitated child sexual exploitation.)

Characteristics of child sexual abuse material abusers

Research has identified some recurring characteristics of those who consume child sexual abuse material. These abusers typically have been found to:

• identify as male 
• identify as white or Caucasian 
• not be in a relationship  
• have completed a higher level of education than other sexual offenders 
• have a higher income level 
• have no parental responsibility
• be less likely to live with children than other child sexual abusers (Salter et al.).

Cross over between online and in-person sexual abuse

Research suggests many people who sexually abuse children online also engage in ‘contact’ or ‘hands on’ sexual abuse of children (Bourke and Hernandez). Criminal records are likely to underestimate the cross-over between online and contact sexual offending, making criminal history records an incomplete indicator of risk in the child protection context.

Women who sexually abuse children

Although prevalence rates of sexual abuse by women appear to be considerably lower than those for men, sexual abuse by women does occur. The rate of sexual abuse by women is underestimated by criminal statistics. 

Gendered social constructs contribute to the minimisation or dismissal of child sexual abuse by women (Eldridge et al.). This often marginalises victims of abuse by women and creates a sense of stigmatisation, traumatic sexualisation, betrayal, and powerlessness. These dynamics can increase the immediate and long-term harm experienced by victims of female abusers.

Social and developmental background

Women who sexually abuse children are much more likely to have long-standing, extensive, and severe experiences of trauma and often have themselves experienced:
•    multiple abuses in childhood
•    exploitative or abusive adult relationships
•    undiagnosed trauma
•    poor emotional regulation 
•    low self-worth (Eldridge et al.). 

The characterises of women who sexually abuse children appear to be closely related to whether they offended on their own or in the company of a (usually male) co-offender. Women who sexually abuse children on their own demonstrate a greater presence of personal vulnerabilities, including mental health and substance abuse difficulties. 

Co-offending women display a greater presence of environmentally based factors, including a current partner who was a known sex offender and involvement with antisocial peers (Eldridge et al.). 
Some women who co-offend have been coerced or otherwise forcefully engaged in the abuse by their male co-offender. 

Thinking errors and underlying beliefs

Research has identified common patterns of underlying beliefs, known as implicit theories, that contribute to thinking errors. Understanding these beliefs can help child protection practitioners recognise and respond to the increased risk of future abusive behaviour.

Women who sexually abuse children may demonstrate similar thinking errors and beliefs to male abusers, however some female-specific versions of the five implicit theories identified have also been suggested. The following four concepts are relevant to female sex offenders (Beech et al.).

Apply an understanding of these factors to identify signs that may indicate an increased risk of future abusive behaviour.

Forensic sex offender risk assessment

Forensic risk assessments are used to estimate how likely it is that someone will commit a sexual offence in the future. These assessments are undertaken by appropriately experienced professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists or social workers and produce a final risk score or classification. 

While these assessments can inform criminal proceedings and sometimes support child protection decisions, they should not be the sole basis for child protection risk assessments. They rely primarily on criminal convictions, which often reflect just a small part of an offender’s abusive or antisocial behaviours. When using these assessments, it is important to look beyond the final risk score and consider the detailed information provided.

Look for information gathered about dynamic risk variables and individual factors and use these to inform a holistic child protection risk assessment. 

The most accurate way to gather information to inform a risk assessment is to: 

• visit the family at home 
• build relationships with the child and family members 
• observe parenting approaches 
• assess protective capacity of each parent 
• continue to incorporate new information gathered over time.