Behaviour and Characteristics of Perpetrators of Online-Facilitated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation a Rapid Evidence Assessment
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Behaviour and Characteristics of Perpetrators of Online-facilitated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation A Rapid Evidence Assessment Final Report Authors: Jeffrey DeMarco, Sarah Sharrock, Tanya Crowther and Matt Barnard January 2018 Prepared for: Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) Disclaimer: This is a rapid evidence assessment prepared at IICSA’s request. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors alone. At NatCen Social Research we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people’s lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping decisions and services that can make a difference to everyone. And as an independent, not for profit organisation we’re able to put all our time and energy into delivering social research that works for society. NatCen Social Research 35 Northampton Square London EC1V 0AX T 020 7250 1866 www.natcen.ac.uk A Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No.4392418. A Charity registered in England and Wales (1091768) and Scotland (SC038454) This project was carried out in compliance with ISO20252 © Crown copyright 2018 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.iicsa.org.uk. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at [email protected] Contents Glossary of terms .............................................................. 5 List of acronyms ................................................................ 8 Executive summary ........................................................... 9 1 Introduction ............................................................... 13 1.1 The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse ................................ 13 1.2 ICT and CSA ......................................................................................... 13 1.3 Research aims and objectives .............................................................. 15 2 Methodology .............................................................. 17 2.1 Overview of approach ........................................................................... 17 2.2 Search terms, criteria and pilot stage .................................................... 17 2.3 Evidence selection ................................................................................ 19 2.4 Evidence screening and weighting ........................................................ 19 2.5 Evidence synthesis ............................................................................... 20 3 Demographics and other characteristics ................... 22 3.1 Demographics ....................................................................................... 22 3.2 Previous offending and recidivism ........................................................ 24 3.3 Cognition and mental health ................................................................. 26 3.4 Typologies of offenders ......................................................................... 27 3.5 Victim characteristics ............................................................................ 33 4 Influences of technology ........................................... 36 4.1 Types of offender .................................................................................. 36 4.2 The relationship between different types of offending ........................... 36 4.3 Fantasy and virtual offending ................................................................ 39 5 Identifying and targeting victims ................................ 41 5.1 Social networking sites ......................................................................... 41 5.2 Targeting victims ................................................................................... 41 5.3 Contacting victims ................................................................................. 45 NatCen Social Research | Behaviour and Characteristics of Perpetrators of Online- 3 facilitated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation 6 Self-generated images and peer offences ................ 48 6.1 Peer online-facilitated sexual abuse ..................................................... 48 6.2 Sexting and CSA ................................................................................... 48 7 The role of institutions ............................................... 51 7.1 The prevention of online-facilitated CSA ............................................... 51 7.2 The detection of online-facilitated CSA .................................................. 52 7.3 The assessment of online-facilitated CSA offenders ............................. 54 7.4 The treatment of online-facilitated CSA offenders ................................. 57 8 Conclusion ................................................................ 61 9 References ................................................................ 64 Appendix A Search terms and strings ............................. 74 Appendix B Targeted databases and grey literature ....... 77 Appendix C Inclusion/exclusion criteria ........................... 78 Appendix D Included sources and weighting .................. 79 Appendix E Typology summaries .................................... 83 4 NatCen Social Research | Behaviour and Characteristics of Perpetrators of Online- facilitated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Glossary of terms Please note that the original source of the following terms is noted for reference. Sources have been provided by the authors of this report where no other one is noted. Term Definition Budapest Convention The Council of Europe’s treaty in standardising national laws globally in response to cybercrime, including online-facilitated child sexual abuse (CSA).1 Child A person under the age of 18.2 Child Exploitation and The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is a command Online Protection Centre of the National Crime Agency working to protect children from online and offline harm in partnership with local and international police and other agencies. Child sexual abuse Sexual abuse of children involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities. The activities may involve physical contact and non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse including via the internet. CSA includes child sexual exploitation.2 Child sexual abuse A representation, whether imagery or in any other form, depicting material the sexual abuse of a child, or material which sexualises and is exploitative to a child.1 Clearnet The ‘surface’ internet – what regular users of the internet and information and communication technology (ICT) access daily and communicate through – as opposed to the darknet (see below). Contact offender or These terms predominantly refer to perpetrators of CSA who have perpetrator performed offences against children involving direct physical contact. Certain studies include dual offenders (see below) in this category. Perpetrators of contact offences with an online element (for example online solicitation culminating in a direct encounter) are also included in this category. Cryptocurrency Alternative, digital currencies for use on the internet and (for example) Bitcoin. May be used for purchasing legal and illegal goods and services, the latter including drugs, arms and CSA material. Darknet An underlying network on the internet that can only be accessed using specialised technology. There are concerns that CSA material is exchanged through these networks. Dual offender A perpetrator or offender who engages or engaged in both online and contact CSA. End-to-end encryption End-to-end encryption is a method of secure communication used by organisations such as internet service provider (ISP) mobile operators where only those individuals communicating are able to read the content. 1 ECPAT terminology guidelines, www.luxembourgguidelines.org. 2 IICSA glossary of terms, www.iicsa.org.uk/sites/default/files/glossary.pdf. NatCen Social Research | Behaviour and Characteristics of Perpetrators of Online- 5 facilitated Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation European Cybercrime The European Cybercrime Centre is responsible for transnational Centre initiatives in combating online crimes, including online CSA. Federal Bureau of The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an American law Investigation enforcement agency with national jurisdiction over crimes covered by federal law, such as organised crime. File Transfer Protocol File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a series of rules permitting digital files to be transferred between an ISP user and the ISP server on a network. Grooming The process whereby a perpetrator engages in online contact with young people, with the intention of commencing sexual contact, either exclusively online or with a view to committing an eventual contact offence. In England and Wales, sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act (2003) criminalise the arrangement or facilitation of a child sex offence with children