Sexual victimization occurs in all ages, sexes, ethnicities, educational fields, and socioeconomic groups. Sexual offending covers a range of criminal sexual acts, including sexual assaults of older adolescents or adults, sexual contact with children under the legally defined age of each jurisdiction, noncontact sexual offenses involving exhibitionism or voyeurism (e.g., this could include online offending behaviors or use of video/camera devices to capture images of unsuspecting victims), and engagement with illegal pornography (e.g., child sexual abuse material, revenge pornography). Sexual offending, in general, is committed under different circumstances and contexts, such as illegal sexual penetration (i.e., rape) and unwanted sexual contact (e.g., sexual molestation). Rape is primarily regarded as a crime against sexual integrity. If rape is the only way for an individual to get sexual satisfaction, it meets the criteria of paraphilia, i.e. a disorder of sexual preference. The correct technical term is “biastophilia”. A high proclivity to rape is associated with a semantic network in which concepts of sex and power are closely linked in such a way that power cues are necessary precursors of sexual feelings.
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women analyzed data from multiple sites in 10 countries and found that the lifetime prevalence of sexual intimate partner violence (IPV; e.g., marital rape) ranged from 6% to 59%. In addition to sexual IPV, the WHO study based on cross-national data from more than 80 countries found that 7% of women worldwide reported having been sexually assaulted by someone other than an intimate partner. As indicated in both official records and community surveys, the majority of sex offenders are men, with many of them having committed their first sexual offense as a juvenile.
We break down the large group of sex offenders into three types of offenders. The first group are offenders of adults. They sexually offend against adults. The second group are sex offenders who offend against children. The third group is fetish type offenders.
The first group can be characterized as offenders who rape. They use force to sexually assault another adult. Within this group there are two types. The first is violent force sex offender. They utilize a lot of violence, often times more force or violence than is necessary to carry out the sexual assault act. This type of offender gave rise to the idea about rape being a violent crime rather than just a sexual crime. These offenders tend to have higher risk to reoffend sexually violently against others. It is combination of sex and violence. They fit into the stereotype of a rapist or a serial rapist. There are also offenders of an adult who are nonviolent force type. These individuals sexually assault another adult when the victim is not able to give consent or can’t consent to the act. These offenders oftentimes drug their victims, assault someone who’s passed out due to acute alcohol intoxication or sometimes it is date rape scenario, but it depends on the amount of force that’s used.
The second type of sex offenders are offenders of children. There are two basic types within this group. There are pedophiles and non-pedophiles. There’s several subtypes within pedophiles: pedophiles that are attracted to male children, pedophiles that are attracted to female children and pedophiles that are attracted to both. There’s also what’s called an exclusive pedophile that they only have sexual attraction towards children and no sexual attraction towards adults. There are also non-exclusive pedophiles and they are sexually attracted to both adults and children. Non-pedophile offenders of children is characterized by offenders who have sexual attraction and experience with children, but the children are in puberty or post puberty.
The third group of sex offenders tends to engage in sexual offending behavior from a distance, so these includes offenders who commit crimes that involved exposing themselves for sexual gratification (They were called flashers), window peepers (these types set up cameras in bathrooms or in locker rooms etc.) There’re also “upskirt guys”. They try to take pictures with their cell phone underneath women’s and girls’ skirts. Non fetish type offenders are individual interested in child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The problem of adult sexual offending is too complex to attribute solely to a single theory (multifactor theories are stronger).
Sexual abuse is a learned behavior.
Negative or adverse conditions in early development — particularly poor relationships with caregivers — can contribute to the problem.
Sex offenders engage in cognitive distortions.
Repeated exposure to sexually violent pornography can contribute.
Problems with self-regulation and impulse control can contribute.
Short-term relationships and negative attitudes toward women can contribute.