A Peek into Their Mind? An Exploration of Links Between Offense-Supportive Statements and Behaviors among Men Who Sexually Exploit Children and Adolescents Online

• Author: Sarah Paquette,Francis Fortin
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211013523
• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Date: 01 May 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X211013523

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2023, Vol. 67(6-7) 591 –617

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X211013523

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Article

A Peek into Their Mind?

An Exploration of Links

Between Offense-Supportive

Statements and Behaviors

among Men Who Sexually

Exploit Children and

Adolescents Online

Sarah Paquette1,2 and Francis Fortin3

Abstract

While forensic psychologists have some access to their patients’ thoughts when

deciding on a diagnosis or appraising risk, others, such as police investigators,

must rely on physical evidence and behavioral markers to make sense of a crime.

Studies showing that offense-supportive cognitions constitute a risk factor for sexual

offending, including offenses that take place on the internet, highlight the need for

some access to offenders’ thoughts. This exploratory study examines the associations

between offense-supportive statements about the sexual exploitation of children and

adolescents and proxy behaviors. As part of PRESEL, a collaborative research project

between Québec provincial police and academic researchers, the case files of 137

men convicted of using child sexual exploitation material or committing child-luring

offenses were analyzed. Results showed that many meaningful risk factors and sexual

offending behavioral markers were associated with the cognitive themes Sexualization

of children, Child as partner, Dangerous world, Entitlement, and Uncontrollability. The use

of encryption was negatively associated with the cognition Virtual is not real while

Internet is uncontrollable was associated with fewer contacts with minors over the

internet. Findings are useful for understanding the psychological needs that should be

targeted in treatment, as well as helping prioritize police workloads.

1Laval University, Quebec, QC, Canada

2Internet Child Exploitation Unit, Sûreté du Québec

3Université de Montréal, QC, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Sarah Paquette, School of Social Work and Criminology, Laval University, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck,

5444-1030, des Sciences-Humaines, QC G1V 0A6, Canada.

Email: sarah.paquette.1@ulaval.ca

1013523IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X211013523International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyPaquette and Fortin

research-article2021

592 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 67(6-7)

Keywords

criminogenic cognition, implicit theory, child sexual exploitation material, child sexual

solicitation, PRESEL

The concept of offense-supportive cognitions has received a great deal of attention

over past decades. However, despite theoretical and empirical advances, the nature

and role of such cognitions in the sexual offending process remain unclear. While there

is some evidence to support a link between endorsing specific cognitions and engaging

in sexual offending behaviors (Helmus et al., 2013; Paquette & Cortoni, 2019), other

researchers have been unable to confirm this finding (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon,

2005; Paquette et al., 2020). Inconsistent conceptualization of the constructs and dif-

ficulty in discriminating between post-hoc justifications and criminogenic beliefs may

explain these mixed findings (Gannon et al., 2007; Maruna & Mann, 2006). In order

to get a sense of the role of cognitions in sexual offending, a first step is to clarify their

conceptualization. To do so, various research initiatives have been adopted, one of

which uses a thematic analysis of offense-supportive statements to identify underlying

themes—understood as implicit theories—that are theorized to reflect offender beliefs.

Such analysis helps refine our understanding of possible underlying cognitions but

provides no certainty that these are actually reflective of what offenders think (see

Paquette et al., 2020). However, if certain cognitions are criminogenic, as evidenced

by their associations with offending behaviors, then we should be able to use tangible

indicators to measure them. In this study, we attempt to determine whether observable

markers can help us learn about the criminogenic cognitions of those who commit

online and offline sexual offenses against children and adolescents by examining the

behavioral correlates associated with particular themes identified within offenders’

discourse.

Overview of Problems Associated with the Notion of

Offense-Supportive Cognitions

Ward (2000) proposed implicit theories as a conceptual framework for understanding

the wide and varied range of cognitive distortions observed in the discourse of those

who have committed sexual offenses. At the time, the main criticisms of studies of

cognitive distortions were an absence of consensus as to how the concept of cognitive

distortion should be conceptualized (Gannon et al., 2007) and a lack of understanding

of the cognitive process that results in distorted cognitive products—offense-supportive

statements. Drawing on cognitive psychology, Ward (2000) suggested that offenders’

descriptions and justifications of their sexual offenses are the result of maladaptive

cognitive schemas—implicit theories—that are the basis for their views of themselves,

their victims, and the world. Implicit theories, like other theories, are used to help indi-

viduals “explain empirical regularities (e.g., other people’s actions) and to make predic-

tions about the world” (Ward, 2000, p. 492). In other words, offenders’ behaviors are