Abstract
Sexual offenses are often part of a larger criminal career also encompassing nonsexual crimes. However, most sexual offending typologies focus on an individual’s most recent sexual offense. We compare data from Belgian and Dutch national conviction cohorts and use latent class analysis to distinguish groups of individuals based on their history of sexual and nonsexual offenses, considering continuity and variety. The resulting classification is compared between individuals convicted of sexual offenses and individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. Results show that four latent classes can be distinguished based on continuity and variety in criminal histories of individuals convicted of sexual offenses, and that some of these classes resemble those distinguished among individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. We find limited overlap between these latent classes and typologies based solely on the index offense. Results show marked similarities across countries. These results challenge theories of sexual offending to incorporate patterns of nonsexual offending.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 423-451 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Spaan Pascalle 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0366-2205 Blokland Arjan 2 De Blander Rembert 3 Robert Luc 3 4 Maes Eric 3 Blom Martine 5 Wartna Bouke 5 1 Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, Amsterdam and Leiden University, The Netherlands 3 Nationaal Instituut voor Criminalistiek en Criminologie, Brussels, Belgium 4 Ghent University, Belgium 5 Research and Documentation Centre, The Hague, The Netherlands Pascalle Spaan, Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Dr. Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected] 12 2019 1079063219893370 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers Sexual offenses are often part of a larger criminal career also encompassing nonsexual crimes. However, most sexual offending typologies focus on an individual’s most recent sexual offense. We compare data from Belgian and Dutch national conviction cohorts and use latent class analysis to distinguish groups of individuals based on their history of sexual and nonsexual offenses, considering continuity and variety. The resulting classification is compared between individuals convicted of sexual offenses and individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. Results show that four latent classes can be distinguished based on continuity and variety in criminal histories of individuals convicted of sexual offenses, and that some of these classes resemble those distinguished among individuals convicted of nonsexual offenses. We find limited overlap between these latent classes and typologies based solely on the index offense. Results show marked similarities across countries. These results challenge theories of sexual offending to incorporate patterns of nonsexual offending. criminal career offender typology longitudinal comparative sexual offending Federaal Wetenschapsbeleid https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002749 BR/154/A4/SOC edited-state corrected-proof typesetter ts1 The authors take responsibility for the integrity of the data, the accuracy of the data analyses, and have made every effort to avoid inflating statistically significant results. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research pertaining to these results received financial aid from the Federal Science Policy according to the agreement of subsidy number BR/154/A4/SOC. The funding source had no involvement in the research and/or preparation of the article. ORCID iD Arjan Blokland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0366-2205
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
