Abstract
ABSTRACT Possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is a serious criminal offence facilitated by online technologies. To prevent, investigate, and treat online CSAM offending, comprehensive knowledge of potential risk factors for these crimes is required. Given the large body of relevant research, a systematic overview of the risk factors typically considered in research and their link to (testable) theories is lacking. We present a review of 43 quantitative studies (sample sizes ranging from N = 60 to N = 14,804) identified from 56 meta-analyses, reviews, and book chapters on online CSAM offending. Risk factors were extracted and grouped into 12 categories and 75 subcategories via qualitative clustering. The most frequent categories were Criminal History, Socio-Demographics, and Social Relations, whereas genuine psychological constructs were rare. Comparing risk factors for online CSAM offending to those for general (sexual) offending, the need for more specific theories of online CSAM offending is discussed along with implications for future research. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT This review reports risk factors for online CSAM offending that have been researched in the psychological literature between 2011 and 2023, highlighting a lack of theory building and testing, as well as an overreliance on historic criminal behavior instead of psychological risk factors. As such, guidance on how to best prevent the continuation of online CSAM offending in clinical and forensic practice is limited. From this finding, requirements for future research into risk factors that may not only be more specific for online CSAM offending but are also more dynamic and psychologically relevant, as well as the development of CSAM-specific theories and risk assessment tools are derived. The advancement of our knowledge in correspondence with the identified shortcomings will be necessary to understand and prevent future CSAM offending.
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