The use of actuarial risk assessment measures with UK internet child pornography offenders
| Pages | 16-24 |
| Published date | 06 July 2010 |
| Date | 06 July 2010 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.5042/jacpr.2010.0333 |
| Author | Jody Osborn,Ian Elliott,David Middleton,Anthony Beech |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Sociology |
Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research • Volume 2 Issue 3 • July 2010 © Pier Professional Ltd16
Introduction
With the recent popularity and growth of the
internet and related technology, there has
been a significant increase in professional and
public awareness of the use of communications
technologies in accessing and downloading
child pornography. (It is recognised that
the term ‘child pornography’ may not be
appropriate to describe what are often in
actuality graphic representations of the sexual
abuse of children; however, we use it here to
The use of actuarial risk
assessment measures with UK
internet child pornography
offenders
Jody Osborn
Research Psychologist, University of Birmingham, UK
Ian A Elliott
Research Psychologist, University of Birmingham, UK; The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, UK
David Middleton
Professor of Community and Criminal Justice, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK; Childsafe
Associates, London, UK
Anthony R Beech
Professor in Criminological Psychology, Centre for Criminological Psychology, University of
Birmingham, UK
ABS TR AC T
The present study investigates the use of two actuarial assessment measures – Risk Matrix
2000 (Thornton et al, 2003) and Static 99 (Hanson & Thornton, 2000) – with individuals
convicted of downloading child pornography on the internet. A UK community-based sample
of convicted internet sex offenders (n = 73) was assessed using both a standard and a revised
version of RM2000 and Static 99 and assessed for rates of reconviction. None of the offenders
in the sample were convicted of a further sexual crime between a one-and-a-half and four-
year follow-up. These results suggest reconviction rates for internet sex offenders are lower
than for contact child sex offenders. It was found that both the standard version of RM2000
and Static-99 overestimate the risk levels posed by internet offenders and that an adapted
version of RM2000 may be a more realistic measure of risk level in this population. In
addition, it was noted that a higher frequency of low-risk offenders appeared to be accessing
images of younger children and images depicting more serious victimisation than high-risk
offenders.
KEY WORDS
Child pornography; internet; child sexual abuse; risk assessment; recidivism.
10.5042/jacpr.2010.0333
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