Using Luring Communication Theory to Analyze the Behavior of Online Sexual Offenders

Differences in the Etiology of Sexual Offending

Considerable past work has indicated that people become SOs in different ways and for different reasons. Building on the earlier work of Finkelhor and Araji (1986), who provided a comprehensive explanation for sexually deviant behavior, Hall and Hirschman (1991), Ward and Siegert (2002), and Middleton, Elliott, Mandeville-Norden, and Beech (2006) all have proposed models of sexual deviancy based on the influence of specific psychological and physiological contributing factors, such as cognitive distortions, difficulties with emotional regulation, personality problems, deviant triggers for sexual arousal, and intimacy deficits, all of which may lead to a distorted understanding of what defines appropriate sexual behavior, a condition sometimes referred to as having a deviant sexual script. According to these models, not all of the same contributing factors necessarily need to be present or even dominant for individuals to become SOs. This variability across individuals in the specific factors that can result in the emergence of sexual deviancy means that there are different etiologies, or experiential pathways, for becoming an SO. However, as noted by Middleton et al. (2006), when multiple factors are present simultaneously in an individual, they may develop the pure pedophile deviant sexual script in which there is a strong, if not exclusive, preference for children as sexual partners. These SOs gravitate toward online environments because of the greater number of potential victims and the aforementioned anonymity these situations provide (Davidson & Gottschalk, 2011; Suler, 2004)