Male sexual interest in and offending against children : the abused-abuser hypothesis.

An association between experiences of sexual abuse in one’s childhood (ECSA), and sexual offending against children in adult age has been established in several studies. The aim of the present study was to further elucidate this link. First, we explored whether ECSA predicted different types of adult sexual offending against children (hands-on, child pornography offenders, perpetrators with both types of offences = mixed offenders). Mixed offenders reported more ECSA than child sexual abuse offenders (CSA) and child pornography offenders (CP). Furthermore, the aim was to explore whether ECSA and childhood maltreatment were risk factors for adult sexual interest in minors. Emotional abuse was associated with sexual interest in below 16 year olds. However, we did not find an additive effect of having experienced several forms of abuse in childhood on adult sexual interest in below 16 year olds.