Discipline as Prevention: Psychoeducational Strategies in Internet Sexual Offending Group Programs

• Date: 01 November 2021
• Author: Jonah R. Rimer
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20952389
• Published date: 01 November 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X20952389

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(15) 1607 –1628

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20952389

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Article

Discipline as Prevention:

Psychoeducational Strategies

in Internet Sexual Offending

Group Programs

Jonah R. Rimer1

Abstract

This paper analyzes a UK-based psychoeducational intervention for users of

online child sexual exploitation material (CSEM). It is founded on 17 months of

anthropological research in group programs with 81 participants and 15 staff. The

article argues that group exercises help participants reframe knowledge about their

offending, and ultimately reinforce the theoretical concept of discipline (Foucault)

toward internal and external surveillance, normalization, and decreased risk. The

paper first discusses factors participants believed contributed to offending. It then

analyzes the program and participants’ experiences, focusing on exercises about the

mind (fantasy), Internet usage (disclosure and relationships), needs met by offending

(Good Lives and true needs), and planning for the future (relapse prevention). Critical

is that participants are encouraged to reengage offline lives and enact discipline on

and to the online world. Thus, the article ends with an anthropologically-minded

discussion about digital norms, online morality, and implications for Internet offender

psychoeducational practice.

Keywords

Internet sexual offending, online child sexual exploitation material, anthropology,

ethnography, psychoeducation, group programs, discipline, risk, prevention

1The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Jonah R. Rimer, School of Social Science, Michie Building, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD

4072, Australia.

Email: j.rimer@uq.edu.au

952389IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X20952389International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyRimer

research-article2020

1608 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(15)

Introduction

As digital technology becomes more sophisticated and ubiquitous, barriers are broken

down, including for the consumption, distribution, and creation of online child sexual

exploitation material (Seto, 2013; Taylor & Quayle, 2003), abbreviated in this paper as

CSEM. To illustrate, the Internet Watch Foundation (2020) has detected 132,676

URLs that contain CSEM or advertise/link to it, while the Canadian Centre for Child

Protection’s Project Arachnid web crawler found more than 5.1 million webpages with

CSEM (Wager et al., 2018). The US National Center for Missing and Exploited

Children has also reported reviewing over 261 million images and videos of child

exploitation (Westlake, 2020).

In studying CSEM users, researchers often utilize three foundations of analysis:

crime and case data (e.g., Owens et al., 2016); offenders in post-sentencing penal or

treatment environments (e.g., Bourke & Hernandez, 2009); and surveys (e.g., Merdian

et al., 2018). Research largely stems from the psychological sciences, and reports on

offender assessments, characteristics, demographics, and rates of reoffending and

crossover offending (contact abuse along with CSEM). Two anthropologists

(Borneman, 2015; Waldram, 2012) and one sociologist (Lacombe, 2008) have under-

taken ethnography in therapeutic programs for sexual offenders. However, differing to

this study, their works do not focus on CSEM users, and are based in correctional set-

tings. In contrast, this article analyzes a pre-trial community-based UK group program

for CSEM users, the participants, and the administering staff. The paper is based on

17 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, semi-struc-

tured interviews, and focus groups. It seeks to answer: what are the efforts to normal-

ize participants, their actions, and their perceptions about the Internet, sexuality, and

children?

The paper employs a Foucauldian and anthropological lens to explore the pro-

gram’s approach, participants’ understandings of their offending, and questions about

intervention in the digital age. It shows that the knowledge stemming from groups

helps participants to reframe factors and perceptions that impacted their offending,

which are largely related to the digital world. The article ultimately argues that the

program reinforces discipline toward surveillance, normalization, and decreased risk,

mostly through reengaging offline lives and enacting changes on and to the online

world. In light of this, the paper ends with a discussion about digital norms, online

morality, and Internet offender intervention in a broader context.

Literature Review

There is no stereotypical CSEM user; to date, the most consistent finding is that they

are almost exclusively male and likely white (for reviews see Babchishin et al., 2018;

Henshaw et al., 2017; Seto, 2013). Motivations for CSEM usage are multitudinous,

overlapping, and can include factors related to sexual arousal, interest, or preference;

social, interpersonal, and emotional issues; curiosity; thrill in risk taking; pleasure in

collecting; facilitating relationships with other offenders; and/or financial gain (Beech

et al., 2008; Merdian et al., 2013a; Seto, 2013; Taylor & Quayle, 2003). There are also