Paraphilic offending: another privilege of White men?

ABSTRACT

People from historically oppressed groups are over-represented in many Western criminal justice systems. Some studies have found, however, that certain paraphilic sexual offences, such as child sexual abuse imagery and exhibitionism, are predominately committed by White men. This meta-analysis compared the ethnoracial distribution of perpetrators of paraphilic offences and of sexual aggression offences against adults in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand (k = 35; N > 20,000). White men were more likely than Indigenous, Black, and Latino men to commit paraphilic offences, OR = 2.3. Among men who committed sexual offences, White men were more likely to have had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), OR = 1.6. This pattern indicates that more in-depth analysis may need to be done on how power and privilege influence how people act on their atypical sexual interests. These differences in ACEs may necessitate further research on how intimacy violations may contribute to some paraphilic sexual offences.

PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT

Although race is a social construct without scientific foundation, it can profoundly influence how people are treated. Our review suggests that it is possible that differences in ethnoracial identity may shape the development and expression of atypical sexual interests. Clinicians who are sensitive to these cultural influences may better appreciate the factors motivating sexual offending in their clients.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnicity
• race
• sexual offending
• paraphilias
• adverse childhood experiences
• privilege

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Sasha Boer, Terry Nicholaichuk, Andrew J. R. Harris, Seung C. Lee, Andrew Brankley, Ray Knight, David Thornton, Maaike Helmus, and Rebecca Swinburne Romine for access to data used in this meta-analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Latine is a gender-neutral term referring to individuals of Latin heritage. In the US and Canada, these would mainly be individuals from Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other countries in Central and South America.