A Descriptive Study of the Attitudes, Characteristics and Behaviours Differentiating Men Who Do and Do Not Want Help for Their Sexual Interest in Children

TL;DR

This study explores differences between men who seek help for their sexual interest in children and those who do not, based on survey data from over 4,900 men in Australia, the UK, and the US.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the characteristics and motivations of men who seek help for child sexual interest, which can inform secondary prevention programs.

Findings

Men seeking help were more likely to be married, work with children, and have stronger social bonds.

Offending behavior is a key motivator for seeking help, with concerns about relationships and reputation playing a role.

Those seeking help also showed higher rates of other sexual deviancy and used encrypted apps to hide their behavior.

Abstract

In the field of child sexual abuse prevention, secondary prevention services seek to engage with people concerned about their sexual interest and behaviours towards children prior to the onset of offending. There is a lack of robust information to inform program development and to seek to engage earlier with people concerned about their risk to children. Accordingly, this paper reports on the findings of a survey of 4,918 men, drawn from representative samples in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The paper described the proportion of men in the survey with a sexual interest in children (n = 642), and the factors that distinguish between men who wanted help for that interest and men who did not want help. Study findings indicate that offending behaviour is a key motivator for help-seeking amongst men with a sexual interest in children. Men who wanted help were significantly more likely to be married or living with a partner and working with children, and they reported closer social bonds, compared to men with sexual feelings who did not want help, which suggests that their help-seeking may be motivated by concern about the impact of their offending on their close relationships, social ties, and reputation. This group also displayed heightened rates of other forms of sexual deviancy, such as arousal to animal pornography, as well as the use of encrypted social media apps, potentially to camouflage or hide their offending activity. These findings may be useful for secondary prevention services in order to build motivation to seek help amongst men with a sexual interest in children.

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