Sexual Interests of Men With Different Child Sexual Offenses as Assessed by Direct and Indirect Measures – Do Users of Child Sexual Abuse Material Differ?

Sexual interest in children is an important risk factor for sexual (re)offending against children. We aimed to consolidate the validity and reliability of the Explicit and Implicit Sexual Interest Profile (EISIP), which combines self-report, viewing time (VT) measures, and Implicit Association Tests (IATs) to assess sexual interest in children. To further examine EISIP validity, several ways to score the VT task were investigated. The EISIP produced mostly acceptable validity ( r > .30) and reliability (ρ > .70) indices. Only minimal differences between the scoring methods underlined the robustness of the VT measure. We additionally compared the sexual interest of the N = 516 men based on their offenses: using child sexual abuse material (CSAM), contact offenses against extrafamilial or intrafamilial children, mixed offenses, and other offenses. Men with mixed offenses had the highest indications of sexual interest in children, while participants with intrafamilial or other offenses had the lowest. Individuals with CSAM convictions had lower scores than originally expected and composed a heterogenic subgroup. Explorative analyses additionally indicated group differences regarding antisociality. Our results support the distinction of people convicted of sexual offenses against children into subtypes. The need for further differentiations (i.e., in the CSAM group) is discussed.