A Preliminary Descriptive Model of Expertise Related Competence in Child Sexual Offending

Child sexual offending is a great area of concern to the public and researchers alike. The damaging effects of Child Sexual Abuse are numerous and frequently enduring. Research in sexual offending has tended to focus on therapeutic interventions and effectiveness as well as the aetiological aspects of offending. Much of this research has focused on offender deficits associated with sexual crimes that are the target of intervention programs. There has been little attention paid to the view that sexual offenders appear to learn from their previous offending and in some cases acquire a considerable degree of offence related competency. In other words, some sexual offenders appear to develop high levels of expertise. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are 'expert' offenders within the child sexual offending arena who display greater competence in utilising grooming techniques, selecting targets, interpreting and evaluating social and environmental cues, and who possess extensive offence scripts. In this exploratory study, 47 male child sexual offenders were interviewed in New Zealand prison based Sexual Offender Rehabilitation Units about their offences as well as their lives prior to and post offending. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using Grounded Theory to generate a model of offence specific decision making. Results indicated that child sex offenders vary on the above dimensions and effectively span the range from 'novice' to 'expert' offenders with respect to the quality of their decision making and their domain relevant knowledge structures. By using the general principles of expertise as a conceptual framework, a developmental model of expertise in child sex offenders in New Zealand was constructed. The implications of the constructed model for theory and treatment are discussed and suggestions are made for the direction of future research.