A
Brief Profile of the Sample
As
Table 1 reveals, a high proportion of the prisoners (60 per cent) had
committed their sex offence or offences against children and, in two-thirds of
these cases, the prisoners victimized solely children within their own
family unit. In half of the child victim cases only one victim was named in
the indictment. Of the one-third who committed at least one offence against a
child outside of their family, only four had apparently victimized a
complete stranger. Almost a quarter (27/116, 23 per cent) of offenders against
children had assaulted, on the occasion leading to their current prison
sentence, at least one male victim -- a group noted in the literature as
especially prone to be reconvicted -- yet very few, only nine, had offended
against only male victims. This profile largely matches those described
in Grubin's (1998) review of the literature. Table
1
|
Characteristics of victim(s) |
Any male victim(s) |
Only female victim(s) |
Total |
|
Number |
Percent |
|||
| At least one adult stranger victim | 0 | 39 | 39 | 20.3 |
| Adult non-stranger victims only | 0 | 37 | 37 | 19.3 |
| Total adult victim(s) only | 0 | 76 | 76 | 39.6 |
| At least one extra familial child victim* | 14 | 24 | 38 | 19.8 |
| Intra-familial victim(s) only | 13 | 65 | 78 | 40.6 |
| Total any child victim(s)** | 27 | 89 | 116 | 60.4 |
| Total | 27 | 165 | 192 | |