ABSTRACT
Viewers and producers of child pornography participate in some similar behaviors (United States Sentencing Commission [USSC], 2012). They tend to experience similar or predictable comorbidities, recidivism risks, sexual deviancy, and interests in violence and penetration. In general, child pornography offenders may be analyzed using five variables. First, their degree of interest in sexualizing children encompasses a range. Second, their motives may vary for collecting child pornography. Third, they may or may not engage in sex offending, that is, production offenses, hands-on offenses, and contact offenses. Fourth, child pornography viewers are not necessarily pedophiles. Fifth, technology may influence the level of interest in child pornography, acceptance for their behavior, community participation, and degree of contact with children. Kinds of technology and frequency of technology used may be separable from the other categories yet may also overlap, especially with offenders’ motivations and psychology. Within these five categories, offenders may engage in different combinations of behaviors, extreme activities, experimental pornography use, and compulsive behaviors. Offenders’ behaviors and interests may flow along a spectrum.
