'What Works, for Whom?' Sexual Offence Treatment Dosage, Duration, Sequence, and Composition.

Purpose Of Review: Recent scholarship has advocated the need for more detailed analysis of key components within sexual offender treatment programs that contribute to successful outcomes; and importantly to delineate 'what works best, for whom.' The present review interrogates recent scholarship on treatment duration and dosage, program composition and sequencing, to advance critical discussion on 'for whom' treatment works best.

Recent Findings: Although we now know more about what key program components are associated with better outcomes overall, observed differences at an individual level reemphasize the importance of attending to specific responsivity factors in treatment.

Females' Engagement in Offline and Online Sexual Offending and Their Interactions With the Criminal Justice System: A Gender and Age Comparison.

This study aimed to extend limited extant knowledge of female-perpetrated sexual offenses, including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses, that enter the criminal justice system. Sexual offenses actioned by the police in one jurisdiction of Australia between 1 January 2012 and 30 June 2021 ( = 37,864) were analyzed to explore the prevalence of sexual offenses and types of sexual offenses perpetrated; the relationship between perpetrator gender, age, and offense type; and the relationship between perpetrator gender, age, offense type, and likelihood of law enforcement action ( = 34,835). Consistent with previous research, (predominantly adult) males were responsible for most sexual offenses before police.

A Review of Digital Interventions as Secondary Prevention Measures to Combat Online Child Sexual Abuse Perpetration.

Interventions implemented in the digital space play an important role in the response to global concerns about the prevalence of online child sexual abuse. Digital detection software (e.g.

It's More Than a Matter of Trust: What Parents and Young Children Need to Know to Prevent Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse.

Programs aimed at preventing child sexual abuse typically focus on skilling up young children and, to a lesser extent, parents by imparting a range of protective messages. Many sexual abuse prevention programs include a focus on identifying or vetting "safe" or "trustworthy" people. The authors qualitatively analyzed the content of narratives from individuals with childhood experience of intrafamilial sexual abuse, an under-represented voice in the development of child sexual abuse prevention programs.

Understanding Concentrations of Sexual Violence and Abuse: A New Theory.

Sexual violence is unevenly distributed, with concentrations reported in some contexts and not others, on global, national, and local levels. To advance understanding of why concentrations develop in some settings and not others, existing theory and research is explored and critiqued, identifying a need for new theory generation. Building on existing knowledge, a new theory of contextual activation is proposed, explaining the social and contextual factors associated with the development of sexual violence and abuse concentrations, through the activation at scale of routine causal mechanisms.

Why Didn't They Intervene? Examining the Role of Guardianship in Preventing Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

In recent years, the failings of institutions to safeguard children from sexual abuse have been brought to light through investigations and commissions of inquiries such as Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The role of adults as guardians, to protect children within these institutions, has been afforded particular scrutiny, highlighting past ineffective and harmful intervention and responses to abuse, and even inaction. Despite this attention, limited research to date has explored the barriers underpinning guardianship behavior in this setting.

Comparing the onset of child sexual abuse perpetration from adolescence into adulthood: Are there unique risks, and what does this mean for prevention?

Background: There are no known studies that have directly compared factors associated with the onset of child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetration during emerging adulthood, with CSA perpetration in other life-stages.

Objective: This study investigated common and distinct factors associated with the onset of CSA perpetration (i.e.

Offense Trajectories, the Unfolding of Sexual and Non-Sexual Criminal Activity, and Sex Offense Characteristics of Adolescent Sex Offenders.

The current study examines offending trajectories of adolescent sexual offenders (ASOs). Until recently, classification frameworks have not been designed to account for the heterogeneity of offending patterns in adolescence, how these are associated with the unfolding of sexual and non-sexual criminal activity, and whether and to what extent they are related to the characteristics of sex offenses in adolescence. The current study takes a longitudinal view of offending in adolescence by examining retrospective longitudinal data of 217 ASOs referred for treatment to a clinical service between 2001 and 2009 in Australia.

Improving therapeutic engagement with adolescent sexual offenders.

This article reports a test of multisystemic predictors of therapeutic engagement (TE) with adolescent sexual offenders (ASOs), and an evaluation of clinical efforts to improve TE with this client group. First, clinicians rated their TE with 105 Australian court-referred male ASOs (M = 15.53 years; SD = 1.