Gateway to offending behaviour: permission-giving thoughts of online users of child sexual exploitation material

Abstract

The endorsement of permission-giving thoughts, or so-called cognitive distortions, has been discussed as a contributing factor in sexually abusive behaviour. The current study set out to

Non-Offending Minor-Attracted Persons: Professional Practitioners’ Views on the Barriers to Seeking and Receiving Their Help

“…The themes identified from the current study were based on the expertise of professionals in the field, rather than the clients themselves. While relatively unique in focussing on non-offending MAPs the current study is not unique in using a professional proxy sample (see Kettleborough & Merdian, 2017).…”

A Billion Distorted Thoughts: An Exploratory Study of Criminogenic Cognitions Among Men Who Sexually Exploit Children Over the Internet

“…Conversely, those who did examined cognitive themes could only indirectly derived them using secondary data or clinical observations made by professionals working with men with online sexual offenses (Bartels & Merdian, 2016;Kettleborough & Merdian, 2017).…”

Child porn users & risk for engaging in contact offenses: faulty data minimizes offender’s risk & puts more children at risk for sexual abuse

“…The cognitive distortions (e.g., rationalizations and excuses) offenders use to maintain their deviant sexual arousal and deviant sexual behavior help maintain the problem and may serve as permission giving to engage in sexual contact with minors. 17 This suggests what I refer to as Practice and Premeditation. Practice because the offender uses the porn to strengthen deivant sexual and/or aggressive fantasies and even rehersing how to re-enact the fantasy in real-life.…”

“…The children depicted in the porn did not display signs of resistance or harm or may have appeared to enjoy the sexual contact, and the child is not believed to be harmed by the sexual contact or that in some way the child enojys the sexual contact being depicted. 15,17,[40][41][42][43][44][45] This allows for the offender to strengthen their sexual beleifs involving children. This may help maintain a sense of sense of entitlement to engage children or adolescents in sexual activities.…”

“…The cognitive distortions (e.g., rationalizations and excuses) offenders use to maintain their deviant sexual arousal and deviant sexual behavior help maintain the problem and may serve as permission giving. 17 In 2009, The Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) helped organize a Global Symposium for Examining the Relationship Between Online and Offline Offenses and Preventing the Sexual Exploitation of Children. The symposium members concluded "…that there is sufficient evidence of a relationship between possession of child pornography and the commission of contact offenses against children to make it a cause of acute concern, and that the greater availability of child sexual exploitation materials has stimulated the demand and production of even more extreme, sadistic, and violent images of children and infants".…”