Online Sexual Offending Theory, Practice, and Policy

by Seto, Michael C.

• ISBN13: 9781433839481
• ISBN10: 1433839482
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-01-07
• Publisher: American Psychological Association

Summary

This second edition takes a multidisciplinary and practical approach to online sexual offending, providing psychologists and other professionals with the knowledge to understand this issue and the tools to solve it.
 
Clinical and forensic psychologist Michael C. Seto keeps readers up to date with this ever-evolving problem as technology advances and presents new risks, particularly for children and adolescents. He reviews updated research on topics like child pornography, sexting and other sexual content generated by minors, online sexual solicitation and trafficking, digital exhibitionism and voyeurism, AI-generated pornography, deepfakes, and virtual sex dolls.
 
He also describes new and revised tools and guidelines for assessing and treating perpetrators—particularly those committing offenses involving children and adolescents—and preventive measures to help at-risk individuals and to guide parents, minors, and bystanders to protect children and adolescents online.
 
In addition to empirical research on various types of online sexual offending, Seto explores what drives perpetrators to engage in these behaviors, focusing particularly on the motivation–facilitation model.

Author Biography

Michael C. Seto, PhD, is a clinical forensic psychologist and a forensic research director with the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and a psychiatry professor at the University of Ottawa, with cross-appointments to the University of Toronto and Carleton University. Dr. Seto has published extensively on pedophilia, online sexual offending, sexual offending against children, violence risk assessment, and offenders with mental disorders, including his book Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children, Second Edition. Information about his research; scoring guides for the SSPI-2, CPORT, and CASIC; and other materials are available through his ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Seto. Follow him on X, @MCSeto.

Table of Contents

Preface: Declaration of Personal and Professional Interests
Introduction: The Growing Problem of Online Sexual Offending
Chapter 1. Prevalence and Characteristics of Internet Sexual Offending
Chapter 2. Child Sexual Exploitation Material
Chapter 3. Sexual Solicitation of Minors
Chapter 4. Other Online Sexual Offending
Chapter 5. Etiology of Online Sexual Offending and the Motivation–Facilitation Model
Chapter 6. Risk and Other Clinical Assessment of Online Sexual Offending Perpetrators
Chapter 7. Treatment of Online Sexual Offending Perpetrators
Chapter 8. Prevention of Online Sexual Offenses
Chapter 9. Conclusions and Future Directions: Understanding and Preventing Online Sexual Offending
Appendix A. Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT) and Correlates of Admission of Sexual Interest in Children Scale (CASIC) Scoring Guidelines
References
Index
About the Author