A university hailing from Sydney conducted a survey of 1,945 Australian men on their sexual feelings for children and sexual offenses against them. It constitutes “the largest study of its kind ever undertaken globally”, with a number of key findings about offenders, including their prevalence in the Australian population, their behaviors online and attitudes in social life, as well as their social class.
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) published a study of unprecedented size about sexual offenders among the male Australian population. The study of 1,945 anonymous Australian men, who completed an online survey, led to informative insights about the profile of sex offenders, something that previous studies have refrained from attempting. Overall, the study found that 1 in 6 Australian men answered that they had sexual feelings for children.
The prevalence of Australian men who had sexual feelings for children and had committed an offense (around 1 in 20), was correlated with a number of other factors (with 95% confidence). Their self-reported answers indicated that people in this group are six times more likely to have suffered sexual abuse as a child than those who answered that they had not committed any offenses against children or had any sexual feelings for them.
“Child maltreatment and violence against women are social determinants of child sexual abuse,” the USNW writes. Support programs for children who have been abused, neglected and subjected to domestic violence may have a role in the prevention of child sexual abuse.”
Child sex offenders are usually heavy internet users
Offenders who admitted having sexual feelings for children and committing offenses were found to have a higher likelihood of accessing the Internet for pornography or other reasons. For instance, they were 3.67 times more likely to access pornography, four times more likely to participate in online dating and 3.55 times more likely to do online shopping.
“Men who had sexual feelings and offending with children were significantly more likely to use the internet for numerous purposes than men who had no sexual feelings or offending with children,” the UNSW writes. These men were also more likely to watch “violent and deviant” pornography by a factor of 11.
Men who reported having committed offenses against children and had sexual feelings for them were found to have increased proximity to children. “This group had 2.73 greater odds of working with children compared to men who did not have sexual feelings or offending with children,” the report says.
All of the aforementioned relationships are statistically significant, meaning that they have a high likelihood of being real and not just the result of chance. However, they still could be trivial, because the likelihood of the relationship is not known. For instance, just because it is 11 times more likely that child sex offenders watch violent porn compared to non-offenders, this does not necessarily entail that it is likely that someone that watches violent porn is a sex offender. The same should be noted for all relationships referenced in this article.
A likely high social class for child sex offenders
The sample of 1,945 Australian men was chosen as a stratified sample based on age, residential region, annual household income, and educational attainment based on the Australian 2021 census. The survey was completed via Cloudresearch, an online service that is “well suited for sensitive research topics” because it offers anonymity as opposed to in-person surveys, helping provide more honest answers, according to a study referenced by the UNSW.
The study found that 29.6% of men who reported sexual feelings for children wanted help, which is a group of people likely to be a risk to children but is also an opportunity for prevention, according to the report. That’s why it recommends offering services to help reduce the risk “in order to prevent future harm to children.”
Another key finding of the study surrounded the social class of offenders, which had an increased likelihood to be high when they also had sexual feelings for children.
Lead investigator Michael Salter said that many offenders were found to be “well-connected and easily overlooked. […] This study brings unprecedented visibility to the numbers of undetected child sex offenders in the Australian community,” Salter said.
“By shining a light on the characteristics of individual perpetrators and the broader social and technological patterns that enable their abuse, it is our hope that this research can be the catalyst for change to ultimately keep children safe,” Salter hoped.
