Child Molesters : A Behavioral Analysis

Produced by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in cooperation with the FBI Academy, “Child Molesters” is an investigative tool for law-enforcement officers and child-protection professionals handling cases of children who are sexually exploited. The practitioner will learn valuable investigative strategies, the characteristics of a pedophile, and the difficulties often encountered in cases of sexual exploitation. Criminal-justice professionals will benefit from the chapter on establishing probable cause through expertise when applying for search warrants in cases of child molestation. For the researcher, a list of additional reading is found at the end of the text.

Probably the first, and maybe still the most common, classification typology for child molesters is the one developed by Dr. Groth, who classifies sexual offenders against children into two groups on the basis of whether this involvement constitutes a persistent pattern (a fixation) or a new activity or change (a regression) in their sexual orientations or lifestyles. Dr Groth further explains that the Fixated Child Molester is one “whose primary sexual orientation is towards children,” and the Regressed Child Molester is one “whose sexual involvement with a child is a clear departure, under stress, from a primary sexual orientation towards agemates.”

A more recent classification typology is the one developed by Raymond A. Knight, Ph.D., and Robert A Prentky, Ph.D., that classifies child molesters based on the following five elements: social competence, sexual preoccupation with children, nonoffense contact with children, physical injury to child, and sadism. The typology was empirically developed through statistical analysis and is technically referred to as factor analytically derived taxonomy.

Excerpt from section entitled ‘Children Typologies’ – page 12.