title: The Relationships Between Victim Age, Gender, and Relationship Polymorphism and Sexual Recidivism.
abstract: Victim choice polymorphism refers to victim inconsistency in a series of offenses by the same perpetrator, such as in the domains of victim age, victim gender, and victim-offender relationship. Past studies have found that victim age polymorphic offenders have higher rates of sexual recidivism than offenders against adults only and offenders against children only. Few studies, however, have examined gender and relationship polymorphism, or accounted for the impact of the number of past victims. The present study analyzed the relationship between polymorphism and sexual recidivism, while controlling for the number of victims. The sample consisted of 751 male adult sexual offenders followed for an average of 10 years, 311 of whom were polymorphic (41% of the total sample). The main finding suggested that there was an association between sexual recidivism and age and relationship polymorphism; however, these associations were no longer significant after controlling for the number of victims.
authors.affiliation: 1 Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Skye
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stephens
authors.affiliation: 2 Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.affiliation: 1 Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Alasdair M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Goodwill
authors.affiliation: 3 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cantor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims; D057237:Criminals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000075665:Recidivism; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D012742:Sex Offenses
keywords: polymorphism; recidivism; risk assessment; sexual offenders; victim crossover