Offense-Supportive Cognitions Expressed by Men Who Use Internet to Sexually Exploit Children: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Although offense-supportive cognitions are related to the maintenance of contact sexual offending behavior, it is unknown whether this finding also applies to online sexual offending behavior. A few studies have examined the cognitions of men convicted for using child sexual exploitation material, but findings remain limited due to important methodological limitations. Furthermore, fewer studies have investigated the cognitions of men who use the internet to solicit sexual activities with children. The objective of this study was to examine the nature of the cognitions that support online sexual offending against children. The content of police interviews was analyzed using a thematic analysis to identify the cognitive themes present in the offense-related views expressed by 20 men who consumed child sexual exploitation material, 15 who sexually solicited children, and 18 who committed both types of online offenses. Results revealed eight cognitive themes that reflected four underlying themes related to interpersonal relationships, the sexualisation of children, perceptions of the self, and perceptions of the virtual environment. Findings indicate that while the cognitive themes of the three groups are similar, their specific content varies according to the types of offenses. Implications for future research are discussed.

Keywords

child sexual exploitation material user child luring sexual solicitation of children offense-related cognitions cognitive distortions

It is well established that men who sexually abuse children exhibit cognitions that support or excuse their offending behavior. While some set of cognitions expressed by these men, like the denial or minimisation of the offenses—often conceptualized as post hoc justifications—appear unrelated to the maintenance of sexual offending behaviors (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005), other types—frequently described as offense-supportive cognitions—have a small but significant association with sexual reoffending (Helmus et al., 2013). Given this association, much research has focused on developing a better understanding of the nature of these cognitions among men who have committed contact sexual abuse of children.

With the advent of the internet, there has been an emerging empirical interest on men who use virtual platforms to sexually exploit children. Comparative meta-analyses indicate that the offense-related cognitions of these men differ, at least at some level, from those of men who commit offline contact sexual abuse of children (Babchishin et al., 2011, 2015). This finding suggests that the knowledge on the offense-related cognitions of men with contact offenses may not apply to men with online sexual offenses. Although there have been initial investigations of such cognitions, this field of research is still in its infancy and suffers from several limitations due to, among others, methodology limitations, such as using information based on knowledge obtained from men convicted of only contact offenses. Thus, the thematic nature of the online offenses-related cognitions remains unclear. To fill this gap in the scientific literature, this study examines the themes found among the offense-related views of men with online sexual offenses against children.

Cognitions That Support the Sexual Abuse of Children

Abel et al. (1984) introduced the concept cognitive distortion into the field of sexual abuse to describe cognitions that minimize and justify offending behavior of men who had sexually abused children. Since then, the term has been generically used by researchers to refer to various and very different cognitive phenomena such as attitudes, beliefs, defensiveness, justifications, rationalisations, and denial and minimisation (Abel et al., 1989; Blumenthal et al., 1999; Bumby, 1996; Murphy, 1990; Neidigh & Krop, 1992; Rogers & Dickey, 1991; Ward et al., 1997). Offense-supportive cognitions can be understood as “cognitions that most probably contribute to the facilitation and the maintenance of sexual offending or general criminality” (Ó Ciardha & Gannon, 2011, p. 131).

Ward (2000; Ward & Keenan, 1999) hypothesized that men who commit sexual offense hold an interrelated set of specific cognitions that include entitlement, children as sexual objects, nature of harm, dangerous world, and uncontrollability, which he calls “implicit theories” that reflect the way they perceive themselves, others (including their victims), and the world, and support and contribute to these men’s sexual offending behavior. Various independent studies, using either psychometric questionnaires or interviews, have since found similar, although not identical, themes in the cognitions of men who engaged in contact sexual offending against children (Mannix et al., 2013; Marziano et al., 2006; Paquette et al., 2014). The picture, however, is not so clear regarding the offense-related cognitions of men who engaged in online sexual offending: Research tends to show that men who engage in contact sexual abuse of children differ from those who engage in online offenses (Babchishin et al., 2011, 2015);

Previous Research on Cognitions Related to Online Sexual Offending

In Canada, individuals who engage in online sexual offending behaviors against children can be prosecuted for child pornography or child luring offenses. Child pornography refers to all behaviors related to the access, possession, distribution, and production of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM). Child luring refers to any online facilitating communications intended to further engage children in online or offline sexual activities. The vast majority of studies on the cognitions of men with online sexual offenses have focused on CSEM users; to our knowledge, only a few has examined the cognitions of child sexual solicitors (CSS). Most studies have utilised a variety of methodologies to indirectly assess the cognitions related to online sexual offending. Some authors have developed questionnaires (Howitt & Sheldon, 2007; O’Brien & Webster, 2007) to assess the cognitions about internet sexual activities with children using items based on the cognitions of men with contact offenses and items presumed to reflect, based on the authors’ clinical experience, the cognitions of men with online sexual offenses. Others authors inferred online-related cognitive themes through a systematic review of secondary data or surveys of practitioners (Bartels & Merdian, 2016; Kettleborough & Merdian, 2017). Other studies directly examined the offense-related cognitions of CSEM users (Quayle & Taylor, 2003; Seto et al., 2010) and CSS (DeLong et al., 2010). None of them, however, provided an analysis of the thematic content of these cognitions.

Cognitions of CSEM Users

To examine the cognitions of CSEM users, psychometric measures were created. Howitt and Sheldon (2007) developed the Children and Sexual Activities (C&SA) scale based on the cognitions found among men with contact sexual offenses as well as cognitions specific to CSEM users. The scale content was developed to match the content of the five Ward and Keenan’s (1999) implicit theories. Not surprisingly, given the mix of online and contact-related cognitions, all participants endorsed cognitions that represented the five implicit theories (i.e., nature of harm, child as sexual being, uncontrollability, entitlement, and dangerous world). Another scale, the Internet Behaviours and Attitudes Questionnaire (IBAQ; O’Brien & Webster, 2007), was based on literature on various psychological characteristics associated with both contact and online sexual offending. The Attitudes subscale was found to measure two distinct constructs: distorted thinking and self-management towards child abusive images on the internet. In an independent study, Elliot (2011) investigated on a sample of 177 CSEM users the underlying constructs measured by of the Attitudes scale. He found five dimensions related to various psychological constructs (i.e., compulsivity, online identity, indiscriminate arousal, and fantasy); only one of them was actually measuring offense-supportive cognitions (i.e., nature of harm). No other implicit theories were found in this examination. Recently, the Cognitions on Internet Sexual Offending (C-ISO; Paquette & Cortoni, 2019) scale was specifically developed to reflect the content of offense-supportive cognitions of men with online sexual offenses against children—both CSEM users and CSS.¹ The initial validation of the scale indicated it is unidimensional and discriminates men with online sexual offenses against children from those with contact sexual offenses or nonsexual offenses.

Indirect approaches were also used to assess the cognitions of CSEM users. Bartels and Merdian (2016) conducted a qualitative analysis of research excerpts and conceptual considerations drawn from empirical papers to establish a theoretical classification of implicit theories that might reflect the cognitions of CSEM users. They organized these cognitions into five distinct themes: unhappy world, child as sexual objects, nature of harm, self as uncontrollable, and self as collector. In light of the hypothesized importance of the internet’s properties for online sexual offending posited by several authors (e.g., Babchishin et al., 2015; Quayle & Taylor, 2003), Bartels and Merdian (2016) also proposed a more general theme, reinforcing nature of the internet, that would underlie all CSEM users’ implicit theories.

Kettleborough and Merdian (2017) asked professionals working with men convicted for online sexual offenses what would be, based on their clinical observations, the typical cognitions specific to online sexual offending. Participants reported that the Ward and Keenan’s (1999) implicit theories classification does not fully capture the cognitions of CSEM users, except, perhaps, children as sexual beings and nature of harm. They also identified a range of online-specific cognitions that were classified, using an inductive thematic analysis, under four main themes: perceived nature of children, nonsexual engagement with CSEM, denial of harm, and expression of a general sexual preference.

Finally, other researchers conducted direct examinations of the cognitions of CSEM users. From interviews, Quayle and Taylor (2003) found that men who use CSEM demonstrate cognitions that tend to uniquely focus on their collecting behavior rather than on the fact that their collections specifically focused on sexual depictions of children as if that element was irrelevant. Consequently, these authors elaborated a theoretical model of problematic internet use in which these types of cognitions play a central role. Seto et al. (2010) examined the explanations given by two samples of CSEM users: one interviewed during police interrogation and the other during clinical assessment following conviction. They found that both groups offered similar levels of explanations unique to online offending that included claims of curiosity and accidental access. Both groups also claimed pornography addiction, but significantly more men in the clinical sample did so. Based on 23 interviews with CSEM users, Soldino et al. (2020) provided an empirical validation of the implicit theories previously proposed by Bartels and Merdian (2016). They further identified the presence of other implicit theories typically found among men with contact sexual offenses against children (i.e., uncontrollability, child as sexual being, dangerous world, and nature of harm).

Cognitions of CSS

Two case studies using interviews with CSS were conducted to examine the perceptions of these men regarding their sexually abusive behaviors (Kloess et al., 2019; Whittle et al., 2015). Despite not being their main objective, both studies reported examples of offense-supportive cognitions such as the minimisation of the seriousness of the sexual communications with children or the idea that internet’s anonymity is a contributive factor to online sexual interaction with minors. Using 18 police interviews of men arrested for sexual solicitation of fictitious minors, DeLong et al. (2010) found that the most frequently used offense-supportive techniques were justification-rationalisation (78%) and minimisation (68%), whereas refutation was more rarely used (17%).

Limitations of Past Studies and Current Study

Research has shown that men who engage in contact sexual offending demonstrate a variety of cognitions that help maintain their sexual offending behavior (Helmus et al., 2013). In contrast, the scientific literature provides very limited knowledge of the cognitions of men who engage in online sexual offending. Furthermore, previous studies suffer from several limitations, ranging from the inclusion in psychometric tools of items measuring cognitions supportive of contact sexual behaviors against children, or other unrelated psychological constructs, to the absence of empirical replication of theoretically derived models of cognitions or using data directly obtained from participants. To fill this gap in our understanding of the full range of cognitions related to online sexual offending against children, the current study thematically investigated the cognitions demonstrated by CSEM users and CSS.

Method

Sample

The sample comprised 53 Francophone adult men formally charged² with access, possession, distribution, or production child pornography or luring in the province of Quebec, Canada. Cases were randomly selected based on the suspects’ gender and age as well as the nature of their index offenses. Minors, female, and men with current contact sexual offenses were excluded from our sample. Twenty of the participants were charged with child pornography offenses only (i.e., CSEM group), 15 with CSS offenses only (i.e., CSS group), and 18 with both CSEM and CSS offenses (i.e., Mixed Online (MO) group). The mean age of the participants at the time of their current arrest was 40.43 years old (SD = 15.10; range = 16–70). Thirty-six percent (n = 19) of the sample had a prior criminal history: Four participants had been previously convicted for child pornography, one for child luring, eight for contact sexual against children, and 12 for nonsexual offenses.

Material

The material consisted of videotaped interviews of the participants conducted at the time of their arrest. Following their arrest, and as per police procedure, all participants were interviewed about their online sexual activities against children by an investigator of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit of Quebec’s provincial police (Sûreté du Québec). Also as per procedure, all interviews were digitally recorded. On average, the interviews lasted 3.5 hr and ranged between 45 min and 10.45 hr. There was no correlation (r = .06, ns) between the number of statements extracted per participant (range = 3–44) and length of interview. This could perhaps be explained by the fact that long interviews include long periods of silence due to the suspect’s unwillingness to talk with the investigator.

Ethics

Permission for the conduct of this study was granted by the Sûreté du Québec. The project additionally received ethics approval from the Université de Montréal Ethics Review Board.

Procedure

Each videotaped interview was viewed twice by the first author in its entirety to extract any statement that indicated the presence of cognitions supporting online sexual offending. In the first viewing, all the offense-supportive cognitions expressed by the participants were identified and transcribed in French in a Microsoft Excel document. For the purpose of the current article, all reported statements were translated in English. The exact time of the interview during which these cognitions were expressed was also noted for future reference. The second viewing was completed to verify that no cognition had been missed, misinterpreted, or inaccurately transcribed. To be considered offense-supportive cognitions, the statements had to minimize, justify, rationalize, or normalize online sexual offending behavior. For example, the statement by a CSEM user, “Yes, I had some child sexual exploitation videos, but they did not last long and I did not have that many” was deemed to indicate a minimisation of the gravity of his behavior and was transcribed in its entirety. Additional comments were noted as needed for reminders or to provide additional context. For example, in a case in which a participant claimed he had no intention to meet children, we additionally noted that the investigation showed he had specifically chatted with people within a perimeter near to his residence.

In addition to the first extraction made by the first author, a graduate student on placement with the Sûreté du Québec also independently examined a random sample of three interviews to extract all offense-supportive statements within participants’ discourse. This student had no previous knowledge of the literature on the cognitions that support sexual offending but was trained by the first author to recognize and extract offense-related statements according to the procedure described above. The goal of this procedure was to determine whether both the first authors and the student independently identified the same statements as offense-related cognitions. A total of 254 statements were extracted from these three interviews (average length = 2.45 hr; range = 1.5–3.5 hr), and interjudge agreement reached 100%. As a result, the student did not code additional interviews.

Data Analyses

The data were analyzed with thematic analysis, a qualitative method used to identify, analyze, and report patterned responses (i.e., themes) within a data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Thematic analysis presents the advantage of being flexible as it helps extract meanings and concepts from a wide form of data, including interviews and videos (Javadi & Zarea, 2016). There are two forms of thematic analysis: the “theoretical analyst-driven” approach in which the analysis is based on the researcher’s theoretical concepts of the phenomenon under study; and the “inductive data-driven” approach, in which the data are thematically analysed without trying to fit it into a preexisting coding frame or the researcher’s analytic preconceptions (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Both approaches were used in this study. In the first step, and because the goal was to directly examine the cognitions of men charged with online sexual offenses without any preconceived ideas of their content, the inductive approach was chosen for the extraction and the thematic grouping of the cognitions. In the second step, we adopted a theoretical-based analysis to label the emerging themes. Thus, whenever possible, we chose similar labels from those already proposed within the literature for coherence with past findings.

Inductive analysis

The following steps were conducted by the first authors. First, one or several keywords were assigned to every extracted statement identified as an offense-supportive cognition depending its meaning. As recommended by Braun and Clarke (2006), the statements with same meanings were grouped and assigned with keywords that described this general idea. As can be seen in Supplemental Table 1, examples of keywords were “Less harmful than,” “Consent,” “Curiosity,” “Ease of access,” “No violence,” “Role playing,” and “External factors.” To refine the organisation of the statements, additional keywords were assigned when required. For example, for the keyword “Less harmful than,” examples of additional related keywords were “Time spent,” “Quantity of material,” and “Virtual vs contact offenses.” Hence, for the quote, “Yes, I had some child sexual exploitation videos, but they did not last long and I did not have that many,” the main keyword attributed to describe this statement was, “Less harmful than . . .,” and its additional related keywords were “Time spent” and “Quantity of material.”

Second, the thematic analysis process consisted to group the offense-supportive statements according to their associated keywords into similar themes. According to Braun and Clarke (2006), a theme “. . . captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set” (p. 82). Hence, statements with similar keywords were grouped into themes that reflected distinct cognitive content. For example, a general theme referring to the harmless nature of online offending emerged from the data. This theme comprised all statements that reflected the participants’ perception that their crime was less serious than others as a result of, for instance, less time being spent committing the offense (keyword “Time spent”), the use of a “smaller” quantity of CSEM (keyword “Quantity of material”), or its virtual nature (keyword “Virtual vs contact offenses”).

Theoretical-based analysis

All themes that emerged from the analysis were labelled and conceptualized following in-depth discussion and full agreement between the first and second authors. This procedure aimed at comparing the content of the emerging themes with those in the scientific literature, that is, themes reviewed previously. When the content of a theme from this study was highly similar to the content of a cognitive theme already present in literature, the existing label, with an added notation of “i-version” to identify its relevance to online offending, was assigned to reflect this similarity. For example, the theme related to the sexualisation of children found in our data was assigned the label child as sexual beings (i-version) as this idea was found in previous studies (see Paquette et al., 2014; Ward & Keenan, 1999). New labels were assigned to the remaining themes whose content was different from that from literature. All themes resulting from this analysis were then grouped under more general themes based on their shared meaning.

At this step of the analysis, to provide an independent check of the categorization of the findings, the student independently categorized all the offense-supportive statements (n = 254) extracted from the three interviews previously mentioned to the themes already identified by the authors. Again, there was 100% agreement in the categorization of the statements for the three cases. Because of the perfect agreement, no further checks were conducted.

Finally, because eight participants had prior convictions for contact sexual offenses against children, the cognitive themes obtained from their statements were compared with those of participants without any contact sexual offenses to determine whether these eight participants exhibited cognitions related to contact instead of online offending. No unique set of contact-related cognitions was found in this subgroup of individuals; all their offense-related statements were classified into the eight cognitive themes identified among the participants without contact offenses (see Supplemental Table 2 for further details).

Results

A total of 996 statements representing eight distinct cognitive themes subsumed under four higher level themes were extracted from the interviews. As can be seen in Figure 1, the three themes dangerous world (i-version), child as partner (i-version), and entitlement (i-version) were grouped together as they refer to interpersonal relationships. The two themes child as sexual being (i-version) and nature of harm (i-version) were related to the sexualisation of children. One theme, uncontrollability (i-version), formed its own category that reflected the participants’ statements of the self in relation to their offending. Finally, two themes, virtual is not real and internet is uncontrollable, were grouped together as they reflected the participants’ statements about the internet. Supplemental Table 2 shows the distribution of the statements into the eight cognitive themes, and Supplemental Table 3 summarizes themes’ definitions.

Figure 1.

Cognitive themes held by men who engage in online sexual offending.

Cognitive Themes Related to Interpersonal Relationships

Dangerous world (i-version)

Twenty percent of the group of CSEM users, 33.33% of the CSS group, and 44.44% of the mixed group exhibited the dangerous world theme. This theme represents the belief that the world is a dangerous place which comprised threatening, profiteer, and liar individuals, especially adults (e.g., “No adult has ever believed me. It has been like this all my life”—CSEM03; “Women are always lying to me”—CSS14; “You cannot rely on anybody in life, you need to be selfish”—MO18). This negative perception of the world and adults was also reflected in participants’ views of relationships—the real ones as well as the virtual ones. Thus, some participants indicated that they believed online relationships were less problematic than offline ones (e.g., “At least on the internet, I was able to establish conversations with others. Offline people were constantly rejecting me”—MO03; “People have always rejected me and made fun of me. I never had a serious relationship. Otherwise, I would never do what I did [online sexually soliciting children and viewing CSEM]”—MO03), whereas other participants expressed statements that reflected the idea that relationships with adults were dangerous and those with children were less dangerous and more satisfying as children are unconditionally accepting and respectful of others (e.g., “Children are not mean; they say what they truly think”—MO02; “Children have no prejudices”—MO02).

Child as partner (i-version)

The Child as Partner theme was present in 25.00% the group of CSEM users, 26.67% of CSS group, and 22.22% of the mixed group. It refers to the idea that adults and children are equals on both the emotional and the cognitive levels, thus leading to the perception of an egalitarian relationship between children and adults. According to participants, such relationships are built based on emotional and cognitive connections with children. Some participants expressed statements that indicated they perceive themselves to be emotionally closer to children than adults (e.g., “I am at the same emotional level as children”—MO11; [Talking about his 13 years old “girlfriend”] “I feel like if I have more in common with children than adults”—MO11), and that friendship could legitimize relationships between an adult and a child (e.g., “I was chatting online to make friends [with youths]”—CLO14; “In friendship age does not matter”—MO13). Relationships between adults and children are thus not perceived by participants being driven by sexuality (e.g., “I’m only interested in the beauty and purity of children”—CSEM02). Furthermore, their statements indicated that they perceived children as “precious beings” who need to be loved and protected from potential negative events (e.g., “I love children so much that I would be the first to hit the person who would hurt a child”—CSEM04; “I’d like to protect children so that nobody will hurt them”—MO16; [Talking about a teenage with whom he lured] “I never wanted to hurt her. I like her”—CSS03).

Entitlement (i-version)

The Entitlement theme was found in 55.00% of the group of CSEM users, 46.67% of CSS group, and 44.44% of the mixed group. This theme refers to participants’ idea suggesting that they have the right to act as they please and in accordance with their own self-interests, and thus placing themselves in special or superior positions. Participants expressed statements indicating they believe they have the privileged right to engage in online sexual activities with others, and that the age of their sexual partners was irrelevant (e.g., “What I wanted was sexual intercourse with someone, so I looked for this within children with whom it’s easier. I didn’t care how old the person was” [Explaining why he engaged in sexual conversations with underage youth instead of adults]—CSS05). Some considered themselves as a teacher, a special position that “allowed” them to educate about sex by engaging in sexual activities and talks with children (e.g., “I was like a teacher to him. Our discussion consisted in sexual education”—MO16; “I wanted to give them [the youths who were his victims] [sexual] experiences”—CSS10). In this way, men positioned themselves in the privileged superior mentoring or powerful status (e.g., “Looking at child pornography made me feel powerful, like I was in control over them [children depicted in the CSEM]”—CSEM11). Statements of others also indicated that they believe they possess a particular status, somehow above the law, “allowing” them, compared with others, to access illegal content, communicate with children to test their limits or, even to monitor the web, as if they are law enforcement agent, to track offenders (e.g., “I wanted to catch pedophiles. In this context, it feels alright to look at the images [of CSEM]” [Explaining that he had been “acting” as a police investigator]—CSEM13).

Cognitive Themes Related to the Sexualisation of Children

Child as sexual being (i-version)

Thirty percent of the group of CSEM users, 73.33% of CSS group, and 66.67% of the mixed group exhibited the Child as Sexual Being theme. It refers to the idea that adults and children are equals on the sexual level and that children are capable of enjoying and seeking sexual activities with adults. In this context, the children’s behavior tends to be interpreted as sexually provocative. In our study, certain participants indicated that they believe children have a maturity equal to that of adults on sexual matters and are therefore capable of giving informed sexual consent (e.g., “According to me, if the girl consents [being involved in sexual activities that have been recorded], that’s all right for me”—CSEM06; “What matters to me is that the child consents” [Referring to the sexual conversation]—CSS14; “I knew she was underage, but I asked her if she was willing to sex chat with me before doing it”—MO02). Some CSEM users expressed the view that children depicted in the pornographic images were voluntarily agreeing to take part in their recorded sexual abuse (e.g., “They [children] do not seem to have been forced to took those pictures”—CSEM01), whereas men with CSS offenses considered that the children were freely consenting to the sexual activities (e.g., “It’s her [the child] who wanted to get undressed in front of her webcam. I never asked her to do so”—CSS02; “She was the one who decided to send me nude pictures of her. I never asked for those images”—MO03).

Nature of harm (i-version)

All of the group of CSEM users, 80.00% of the CSS group and 94.44% of the mixed group, exhibited the nature of harm theme. This theme refers to the participants’ perception that various degrees of harm can be caused to a child and that some types of sexual offenses are less severe than others. Although, during the interview, most participants were admitting the reprehensible nature of their online offending behavior, they would diminish its harmful nature by comparing their actions with offenses they perceived as more serious such as contact sexual abuse, violent rape, and murder (e.g., “At least, I did not kidnap, kill or sexually abuse a child” [Admitting his online offenses]—MO14; “The difference between me and a child molester is that I would never sexually abuse a child”—MO16). They also believed that within the range of online sexual offenses, some behaviors are more harmful or severe than others. In particular, some CSEM users provided statements that indicated that they perceived their offenses as less severe because they possessed smaller quantities of images than others (e.g., “It was only 20 or 30 files. It was not much. Some people must be way worse than me”—MO02; “Among all my collection [of CSEM], there are a lot of images I had never watched”—CSEM16; “I was not really consuming. Yes, I downloaded CSEM, but I deleted it afterward, and some without having viewed it at all”—CSEM20), or because they believed they spent less time viewing these images than other individuals (e.g., “I may have few videos [of CSEM], but I don’t watch them every day”—CSEM18). Others claimed their use of CSEM was simply for collection purposes (e.g., “There’s a lot of those images I never seen in my life because what I wanted was possessing and collecting them”—CSEM03); they claimed no sexual interest in the content. Similarly, men with CSS offenses perceived that their offending behavior was less serious because it occurred in the virtual space only. A number of these participants also referred to a short timeframe of offending, just like CSEM users, as a way of showing how their offenses were less severe than others (e.g., “I sometimes masturbate [while cyberchatting with children], but it’s never for long”—CSS02; “Yes I chatted online about sex [with a child], but not for a long period”—CSS13).

Cognitions Related to the Self

Uncontrollability (i-version)

The uncontrollability theme reflects the perception that sexual offending is caused by uncontrollable internal or external factors. It was found in 95.00% of the CSEM users group, 93.33% of the CSS group, and 77.78% of the mixed group. Participants referring to this theme perceived themselves to be unable to control themselves within the sexual realm. Most of them tended to blame their specific online sexual offending behavior on their misuse of drugs and alcohol, and/or negative life events such as job loss, illness, and divorce (e.g., “The majority of the time, I was under the influence of alcohol when I sex chatted online with youths”—CSS12; “I watched CSEM videos because I had a major depression”—CSEM11; “It was a rough period in my life, I had just divorced from my wife” [Explaining the reasons why he committed his crime]—MO18). Participants exhibiting this theme appeared to believe they had no control over their offenses; it was their negative circumstances or life events that were responsible for their actions. In addition, some participants reported that they believed they had committed their crimes because they were simply lonely and had nothing else to do (e.g., “I felt alone and when I’m bored I watch child pornography”—MO14), whereas others reported feeling addicted to their online sexual offending behavior, indicating they could not help spending all their free time on the internet (e.g., “It is like a drug addiction, I wanted to stop but I was not able to”—CSEM04; “I knew what I did was wrong, but it was more powerful than me”—CSS6).

Cognitions Related to the Internet

Virtual is not real

The virtual is not real theme refers to the perception from men with online sexual offenses that internet is not reality and that its content is unreliable, as if everything was untrue, lie, or joke. It was present in 90.00% of the group of CSEM users, 93.33% of the CSS group, and all of the mixed group. According to many CSEM users, children sexually depicted in the material are not real victims and maybe not even real persons: They are only considered to be images (e.g., “The images do not represent real sexual abuse”—CSEM03). The cognitions of some of these participants further indicated that they considered their access of CSEM on the internet was driven by curiosity rather than by sexual interest, as if they did not or could not know or imagine what CSEM would look like, and this despite the often explicit file titles (e.g., “I didn’t think the video named . . . [file name indicating a young girl performing fellatio on her father] really involved children”—CSEM15; “I am attracted in a virtual way, not a sexual one”—CSS01; “I was only curious [to watch CSEM]. I never had any sexual interests”—MO7). Most of the men with CSS offenses also perceived that online and offline spaces are fundamentally different, as if the internet is not reality (e.g., “Internet is not real life”—CSS10; “For me, there’s a difference between child pornography and live abuse”—CSEM06). These participants expressed the idea that although they were chatting about sex with underage youths, they had no intention of executing what they were saying because they also believed they were chatting with adults pretending to be children. In this context, their statements reflected the idea that the chatting conversations on the internet are jokes, lies, or role playing involving others adults (e.g., “Yes I had talked about sex, but it was just a joke”—MO16; “There’s a difference between role playing and real life”—CSS04; “On the internet, you can chat with someone who is pretending to be 13 years old, but in fact, he is 50 years old”—CSS11).

Internet is uncontrollable

The internet is uncontrollable theme was present in 40.00% of the CSEM users group, 46.67% of the CSS group, and 38.89% of the mixed group. It refers to the perception that internet, in contrast to the offline world, provides unlimited accessibility to all kind of contents and users, thus leading to either uncontrollable or accidental sexual illegal behaviors. Some of the participants indicated that, because of this ease of access, they perceived the internet as a facilitator or even a provider of uncontrollable temptations to commit online sexual crimes. As such, the fulfillment of their sexual desires for children seemed more realizable in a virtual environment than in the real world. Within this context, a number of participants believed themselves to be unable to not access the internet or control their interactions with other internet users and that the use of the internet inevitably leads to offending behavior (e.g., “Internet makes you do things you wouldn’t do normally. Without it, I would never have engaged in sexual conversation with children”—MO14). Others instead believed that their access to CSEM was accidental and uncontrollable because it “appeared” on their computer without them wanting or searching for such material (e.g., “I accidently found child pornography while consulting adult pornography”—CSEM19; “The images [CSEM] appeared as pop-ups on my computer without me wanting them”—MO09; “On the internet, children can send you nude pictures of them without you wanting them to”—CSS02). Some participants with CSS also expressed that in the offline world, some sort of “filter” exists that helps select people with whom one interacts, but that no such filter exists in the cyberspace (e.g., “On the internet, there is no barrier. Everything is too easily accessible”—CSS15). Hence, they considered that the internet offered no barrier to protect them from being contacted by children.

Discussion

The study used a thematic analysis to investigate the underlying themes from the statements expressed by men to explain, support, or justify their use of CSEM or online child sexual solicitation behavior. Using a mixed approach, the inductive data-driven analysis helped identify eight themes that reflected four general underlying themes related to interpersonal relationships, the sexualisation of children, perceptions of the self, and perceptions of the internet environment. Through the theoretical-driven analysis, we found six themes similar to those commonly found among men with contact sexual offenses against children. The remaining two themes under a general theme related to the internet were unique to men who engage in online offending. Finally, we also found that while the cognitions of CSEM users and CSS could be classified under the same cognitive themes, the specific content of these cognitions differed according to type of online offending, and that participants with both types of online offenses shared the cognitions of both groups.

Cognitions Related to Interpersonal Relationships

Three themes found in the statements expressed by the men in our study could be grouped under the broader underlying theme of interpersonal relationships: dangerous world (i-version), child as partner (i-version), and entitlement (i-version). Data from our study suggest that some CSEM users and CSS believe they turn to child victims, at least partly, due to either negative life experiences or fear of relationships with adults. Within this context, adults, especially women, are often described as malicious, threateners, and untrustworthy (see dangerous world–i-version). This finding fits with the theme underlying the theoretical unhappy world implicit theory proposed by Bartels and Merdian (2016) who highlighted that some CSEM users may feel they live in an unsatisfactory world in which others reject them. Our results suggest, however, that the i-version of dangerous world reflects somewhat more than just perceptions of an unhappy world, as the participants in our study additionally reported feelings of fear and danger from adults rather than “only” feelings of unhappiness. In fact, our finding appears more consistent with studies that have found that all men who engage in contact sexual offenses in general report fear and anxiety about intimate relationships with adults (e.g., Bumby & Hansen, 1997; Ward et al., 1996). This suggests that this dangerous world theme may be a feature common to all men who engage in sexual offending behavior rather than only men who commit child sexual offenses that could be related to the problematic intimacy issues commonly found among men who sexually offend (Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005; Marshall, 1993).

The men in our sample also reported having unsatisfactory intimate relationships with partners of their own age and having turned to children for friendships because they found them more loving, honest, and caring (see the i-versions of Dangerous Word and Child as Partner). Prior research has also found that problematic and unstable interpersonal and intimate relationships characterize CSEM users and CSS (Babchishin et al., 2015; Seto et al., 2012). According to Quayle and Taylor (2003), the recourse to the internet for online sexual offending might be a way for individuals, in a manner similar to contact sexual offenses against children, to escape unpleasant relationships in their real lives. It is therefore not surprising that both groups of men with online offenses in our study exhibited similar cognitions in relation to this theme.

Although the participants in our study appeared to perceive relationships negatively, their statements suggest they still seek positive interactions with others, even if they inappropriately involve children, rather than maintain negative ones. This aspect was also observed by Howitt and Sheldon (2007) who found that the participants in their study endorsed much more acceptable and ordinary statements about others and their relationships than extreme and bizarre ones. For example, while almost all participants (92.2%) endorsed the idea that children are more reliable and more trusting than adults, none agreed with the idea that sexual aggression is an acceptable way to punish and control a child. Howitt and Sheldon (2007) suggested that such seemingly ordinary cognitions might facilitate online offending behavior because they seem, in appearance, socially acceptable. The offense-related statements offered by the participants in our sample were consistent with this idea; they tended to reflect a generally prosocial tendency to respect others rather than an antisocial will to behave without consideration for the victim (e.g., “I love children so much that I would be the first to hit the person who would hurt a child” and “I’d like to protect children so that nobody will hurt them”). This finding is also consistent with a growing body of empirical findings that indicate that men who engage in online offending, and particularly CSEM users, demonstrate fewer antisocial characteristics than men with contact sexual offenses (Babchishin et al., 2015). Hence, this theme is similar in its overall meaning to that of men with contact sexual offenses against children, albeit with content specifically related to online offending.

Cognitions Related to the Sexualisation of Children

The results from our study showed that a number of the statements expressed by the participants in our study reflect the idea that children are sexual beings willing to engage in sexual activity with adults, whether it involves being in pornographic images or engaging in cyber or real sex, and that this activity does not harm them. Not surprisingly, on the basis of their review of the literature on CSEM users, Bartels and Merdian (2016) also proposed their child as sex objects implicit theory following their suggestion that CSEM users see children as objects which serve to meet individuals’ sexual needs. Although our i-version of the child as sexual being appears to be similar to the Bartels and Merdian’s child as sex objects implicit theory, results from our study suggest that children are rather seen as sexual human being than objects, as well as equal to them in their sexual interests and desires. Similar beliefs are also found among men with contact sexual offenses against children (Marziano et al., 2006; Milner & Webster, 2005; Paquette et al., 2014; Ward & Keenan, 1999), indicating that men with online offenses may be also quite similar to men with contact offenses in terms of their sexualisation of children.

Despite commonalities between CSEM users and CSS, the child as sexual being theme appeared more frequently among CSS (73.33% of this subgroup) and the mixed group (66.67%) than among CSEM users (30.00%). It is possible that the age of the victims plays a role in the creation of the belief that children are as sexual as adults. The Crimes Against Children Research Center (Wolak et al., 2005) reported that victims of online sexual solicitation tend to be mostly teenagers with a modal age of 15 (Wolak et al., 2008), whereas the majority of CSEM victims are typically 6 to 12 years old. Similarly, Cybertip (2016) found that, in a Canadian study, 78.3% (n = 43,597) of children depicted in CSEM were approximately 12 years old or younger. These findings could explain why the child as sexual being theme was more frequent among CSS from our sample. Unfortunately, the information about victims’ age was unavailable in the current study. Future research should therefore investigate the link between the child as sexual being theme and the age of victims of internet sexual exploitation.

Prior research has shown that, in addition to viewing children as sexual beings, men who engage in contact sexual offenses against children perceive sexual activities between children and adults as harmless and, at times, even beneficial for children (Paquette et al., 2014; Ward & Keenan, 1999). Such perceptions were also found in our current sample: All but one participant made statements that reflected the nature of harm (i-version) theme. One hypothesis for the presence of the belief supporting the idea that sexual activity is not harmful to children among CSS may be the fact that their targeted victims tend to be adolescents (Wolak et al., 2008); it is thus easier to conceive of 15-year-old persons as not harmed by sex. Among CSEM users, however, it is more likely that this belief may be due, at least partly, to the fact that the majority of CSEM shows children who are smiling, giving the impression that they enjoy, and therefore not harmed, by the depicted sexual activities (Fortin & Corriveau, 2015; Taylor & Quayle, 2003). According to Corriveau and Fortin (2011), the children’s smiles in CSEM material would help offenders cognitively override the harm caused to children by the sexual abuse. It is not surprising, therefore, that the i-version of nature of harm from our study is virtually identical to the nature of harm variant hypothesized by Bartels and Merdian (2016). After all, the scientific literature is replete with references to the fact that CSEM users frequently perceive their online sexual crimes as less harmful than contact sexual offenses, while concurrently ignoring or neglecting to acknowledge the fact that children are sexually abused to produce the material they view (see Howitt & Sheldon, 2007, for a discussion).

Also under the nature of harm (i-version) is the notion that some participants appear to consider their use of CSEM as a collecting activity that is not harmful to the depicted children. This notion of collection found in this theme is, of course, unique to CSEM users. This notion has also been discussed by Bartels and Merdian (2016) through their self as collector implicit theory (see also Quayle & Taylor, 2003), which refers to the idea that some CSEM users define themselves as collectors rather than offenders. As such, they tend to distance themselves from the content of the images they consume by focusing only on their accumulation of material. Our results, however, do not suggest that the men in our sample sought to define themselves through their collections as suggested by Bartels and Merdian (2016). Further research is needed to better elucidate the nature of this theme and its role in online sexual offending.

Cognitions Related to Perceptions of the Self

Not surprisingly, the cognitions of the participants in our study also reflected the idea that they were, or felt that they were, incapable of controlling themselves in relation to their offending behavior (see the uncontrollability–i-version). This finding is in line with previous studies that have reported CSEM users feeling “addicted” to the illegal content they collected (Lanning & Burgess, 1984; Seto et al., 2012; Winder et al., 2015) and uncontrollably driven to increase their collection and acquire increasingly extreme child exploitation material (Fortin et al., 2018). Our participants’ statements of being out of control and “addicted” resemble, but are not identical to, the core concept represented in the self as uncontrollable implicit theory by Bartels and Merdian (2016). These authors posited that their self as uncontrollable implicit theory strictly refers to beliefs about a stable internal state in relation to offending. In our study, however, external factors such as the use of alcohol also constituted part of the men’s offense-related statements, indicating that our i-version of the uncontrollability theme might be closer in content to the one established for men with contact sexual offenses.

Cognitions Related to Perceptions of the Internet

Ward and Keenan (1999) suggested that men who sexually offend emit and test hypotheses about themselves, the world, and others, including their victims. This cognitive process would help these men “predict” and “explain” the thoughts and behaviors of their victims and thus act accordingly. Within this context, it would be expected that individuals who engage in online offending would also “predict and explain” the events that specifically occur in the cyberspace. In line with this hypothesis, and as reflected in the virtual is not real and internet is uncontrollable themes, the participants in our study made statements during their interviews that suggest they believe the virtual content of the internet is simply not reality. The virtual is not real and internet is uncontrollable themes suggest that men who engage in online offenses tend to perceive the virtual environment as different from the real world, and believe that the cyberspace possesses specific features that have the power to influence one’s behavior. It is possible that the internet’s characteristics of access, affordability, and anonymity (Cooper et al., 2004; Quayle & Taylor, 2003; Seto, 2013) explain these perceptions and therefore contribute to online sexual offending, but this proposition requires investigation. Our virtual is not real and internet is uncontrollable themes, however, do not entirely support the idea proposed by Bartels and Merdian (2016) that there is an inherent Reinforcing Nature of the Internet that would underlie all the cognitions related to online offending. For example, our findings do not suggest that the dangerous world and child as sexual being (i-versions) themes were reinforced by the use of internet.

As mentioned above, some participants in our study expressed their view that it is useless to attempt to resist accessing child sexual content on the internet because what occurs in cyberspace is uncontrollable. This general feeling of lack of self-control (see uncontrollability–i-version) also includes views that the internet provides temptations to commit crimes, particularly when one experiences boredom or loneliness. This is in line with studies that also found a positive correlation between the use of pornography on the internet and boredom and loneliness (Gana et al., 2001; Yoder et al., 2005). As boredom appears to characterize people who lack personal involvement and motivation (Sundberg et al., 1991), it is possible that feelings of boredom or loneliness provide CSEM users with the needed justification, in interaction with the idea that the virtual is not real, to act on their sexual interest on the internet. In other words, when men who offend feel lonely or bored, one way to feel better may be to access online child sexual exploitation—a pattern likely akin to the problem of sexual coping found among men with contact sexual offenses (Cortoni & Marshall, 2001; Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005). Future investigations should examine this possibility.

Same Themes—Different Content

The findings showed that the statements from CSEM users and CSS could be categorized into the same cognitive themes, but that the specific content of these statements differed according to the type of online offending. For example, participants of both groups reported the idea that the internet does not reflect reality (see “Virtual is not real” section). CSEM users, however, expressed the idea that the images did not represent real victims, whereas CSS argued their sexual chats did not reflect their actual thoughts and intentions. Another example is the idea that curiosity was at the source of all online offending (see “Virtual is not real” section): Among CSEM users, their curiosity was associated with a desire to discover what CSEM would look like, whereas CSS reported being curious about what children have to say about sex. This finding suggests more commonality than differences between CSEM users and CSS, at least in terms of their views about their offending behavior although some differences are noted here. Additional studies are needed to further examine these differences, especially considering the lack of studies on men who engage in the sexual solicitation of children via the internet.

Besides the commonalities in themes found in the statements expressed by both CSEM users and CSS, our findings suggest that men who engage in online sexual offending possess some of the same general views as men with contact sexually offenses against children. Here again, though, it appears that the content of these views is specific to the type of crime committed, hence the need to provide an adapted version for the internet group (the i-versions). For example, while men with online and men with contact sexual offenses express views that support the sexualisation of children, those with online offenses specifically believe that children are willing to take sexual pose for photographs while those with contact offenses only report believing that children want sexual intercourses with adults (e.g., Paquette et al., 2014; Ward & Keenan, 1999). This specificity suggests that some types of cognitions may play a criminogenic role in different forms of sexual offending against children. This is consistent with suggestions from the scientific literature that some underlying deep cognitions would be criminogenic in nature while others would simply represent post hoc justifications formulated “simply” to avoid consequences. This is an important question to better understand the role various cognitions play in the offending behavior. To date, studies, including ours, have been unable to distinguish offense-supportive cognitions from noncriminogenic post hoc justifications. Future studies should focus on developing novel research designs to help elucidate these issues.

Limits

There are two important limits to this study. First, the data for the present study were obtained from police video interviews. Considering that the objectives of such interviews are directly related to criminal investigations (e.g., the discovery of evidence), it is possible that the approach did not capture all of the participants’ offense-related views that might have been identified if the interviews had taken place in a clinical context, or been specifically conducted for the purpose of the present study. Seto et al. (2010), however, found no difference in the explanations given by CSEM users during their police interviews and CSEM users receiving clinical services postconviction other than the men in clinical services claiming pornography addiction to a greater extent than those in the police interviews. In addition, while research interviews could be affected by the researcher’s confirmatory bias (Nickerson, 1998), the current study was exempt from such a problem because the goals of the police interviews were not to identify offense-supportive cognitions. It is therefore unclear how much of the police interview setting of our study may have limited the type and nature of offense-supportive cognitions expressed by our participants. Further research using a similar analytical strategy but different interviewing approaches will help shed some light on this issue.

A second limit relates to the methodology employed in the current study. It is well established that data-driven qualitative analysis may be subject to the influence of the researcher’s preexisting theoretical knowledge about the topic under study (Kelle, 2005). In this context, there is a risk that our thematic analysis of participants’ offense-supportive statements was contaminated by our knowledge of the literature on cognitions supportive of sexual offending and therefore has led us to “force,” unintentionally, the data into known conceptual categories. To reduce this bias, and as suggested by Glaser and Strauss (1967), we employed a blind coder with no knowledge in this field of research. Their analysis yielded the same classification of the participants’ offense-supportive statements suggesting that the classification itself may not have been influenced by the authors’ knowledge of the field. Of course, the possibility remains that the choice of themes was influenced by prior knowledge. Future research, perhaps using both an inductive and a deductive theory-driven approach with the same data set with blind coders would help confirm or infirm the current thematic classifications of offense-supportive statements.

Conclusion

Research has shown that offense-supportive cognitions are related to contact sexual offending behavior. In contrast, knowledge on the cognitions of men who engage in online sexual offending remains sparse. Before examining the relationship between offense-cognitions and online offending behavior, knowledge about the content of these cognitions is required. To our knowledge, our study is the first to use a mixed inductive data-driven and theoretical-based approach to identify the offense-related views of CSEM users and CSS. The findings suggest that CSEM users and CSS possess sets of offense-related cognitions that are thematically similar to those of men who engage in contact sexual offenses against children, albeit with offense-specific content as well as a unique set of internet-related cognitions not found among men with contact offenses. Because offense-supportive cognitions were obtained directly from interview data with men charged with online sexual offenses, these findings provide a better understanding of the types of cognitions related to online sexual offending. The identification of the content of online offenses-related cognitions is an essential first step towards developing a better understanding of the role such cognitions may play in online offending behavior. Several additional research, however, remain necessary, including the replication and validation of the findings from our study, the measurement of repeated offense-supportive statements as an indicator of an higher endorsement of specific cognitions, the development of tools designed to assess such cognitions, and the examination of the criminogenic role these cognitions play in the development and maintenance of online sexual offending behavior.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental_Material – Supplemental material for Offense-Supportive Cognitions Expressed by Men Who Use Internet to Sexually Exploit Children: A Thematic Analysis

Supplemental material, Supplemental_Material for Offense-Supportive Cognitions Expressed by Men Who Use Internet to Sexually Exploit Children: A Thematic Analysis by Sarah Paquette and Franca Cortoni in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Sarah Paquette

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Notes

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