Assessing the internal structure of the COPINE scale

Abstract

The COPINE scale allows standardised classification of a person's child pornography collection while taking into account contextual considerations. However, despite its frequent usage in research studies, the scale has never been empirically validated with regards to its psychometric properties. This study describes a validation design to assess reliability and construct validity of the scale while considering ethical concerns. An online survey was conducted amongst psychological staff members of Correctional Services NZ as well as postgraduate students from a New Zealand University. Participants were asked to rate verbal descriptions of each item level of the original scale according to its perceived seriousness of the offence, suggesting a higher penalty for more serious image offending. Results revealed that students and correctional staff showed high inter-rater agreement in their rankings, and that rankings increased with higher-level images as defined in the original scale. Two areas of difference to the original scale ranks were identified, concerning levels ‘Posing’ and ‘Sexual Explicit Activities’. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• child pornography
• COPINE scale
• sexual abuse
• sex offending

Notes

1. See http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/Default.asp for an overview of current child pornography legislation of Interpol member states, and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (2006) for a global review.

2. See Method section on ranking behaviour for a discussion regarding measures of inter-rater agreement for ordinal data.