A Reply to the NSW Royal Commission Inquiry into Paedophilia: Victim Report Studies and Child Sex Offender Profiles — A Bad Match?

Abstract

This article questions the validity of the fixated/regressed classification scheme of child sex offenders used by the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service. Since the scheme is based on incar-cerated offender profiles, it does not accord with empirical data derived from victim report studies, and is contradicted by a number of other studies on the sexual behaviour of child sex offenders. The article discusses how the classification scheme appears to have been influential in the Royal Commission's decision to focus its inquiry into paedophilia on the activities of homosexual, fixated offenders. As a result of this focus, the Royal Commission engaged in very little analysis of the extent of child sexual abuse within the family and abuse concerning female children in general. The article concludes by questioning some of the Royal Commission's recommendations for the future policing of child sexual abuse within New South Wales.