Do Sexual Abuse Offenders Target the Same Type of Victim?

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a pervasive public health and social problem that affects approximately one in four girls and one in twenty boys. Preventing CSA requires identifying, detecting, and prosecuting those who perpetrate these crimes. Yet sexual abuse remains one of the most underreported crimes, and it is estimated that fewer than one in ten individuals who perpetrate sexual violence are ever caught.

Researchers have proposed several explanations for why detection rates are so low. These include:

1. Low reporting rates, as many individuals who experience sexual abuse never report it to authorities
2. Characteristics of the perpetrator
3. Characteristics of the crime itself
4. Failures within the legal system to successfully investigate and prosecute cases

Because CSA is so underreported, it is difficult to determine how many individuals who perpetrate child sexual abuse have more than one victim. Much of what we know about sexual offending comes from individuals who have been convicted. This creates an important limitation, as official records likely underestimate both the number of victims and the type of victims harmed by a single perpetrator.

How Stable Are Victim Profiles in Sexual Abuse?

There is a common belief that people who perpetrate sexual abuse have a specific “type” of victim. For example, it is often assumed that someone who abuses children only targets children, that perpetrators abuse either boys or girls (but not both), or that abuse occurs only within or only outside the family, suggesting that perpetrators have stable victim preferences based on age, gender, or relationship to the victim. However, more recent research challenges this narrow view.

What Is Polymorphic or Crossover Offending?

There is increased research showing that a significant proportion of individuals who perpetrate sexual abuse do not restrict themselves to a single victim category. Instead, they engage in what is referred to as polymorphic or crossover sexual offending – meaning that they have victims across multiple categories, such as:

• Different age or developmental groups (prepubescent children, adolescents, and adults)
• Different genders (male and female victims)
• Different types of relationships (intra-familial and extra-familial victims)

A systematic review of the literature found that, on average, one in five individuals who perpetrated sexual abuse against more than one victim had crossover victims. This pattern was relatively stable across studies, with approximately:

• 19% crossing over victim age categories
• 15% crossing over victim gender
• 20% crossing over victim relationship categories

Importantly, the prevalence of crossover offending increased when sexual offending was measured using unofficial sources, such as self-report data or polygraph examinations, rather than relying solely on official records like arrests and convictions. When unofficial sources were used, nearly one-third of individuals who perpetrated sexual abuse crossed over at least one victim category. This finding suggests that official data may substantially underestimate the extent to which perpetrators harm diverse victims.

Evidence From Official Records

Studies relying on official criminal justice data also provide evidence of crossover offending, though at lower rates. In one study examining individuals incarcerated for sexual offenses who had multiple victims at the index offense (the offense for which they were currently imprisoned), researchers found that:

• 13% had victims of both genders
• 14% had victims across different age categories (child, adolescent, and adult), and
• 13% had victims with different types of relationships (e.g., family members, acquaintances, or strangers)

When researchers expanded their analysis to include individuals who had prior sexual offense convictions in addition to their current incarceration, crossover rates increased substantially. Among these repeat offenders:

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• 20% had prior victims of a different gender
• 40% crossed over age categories, and
• 48% had victims with varying relationships across convictions

These findings suggest that the longer an individual’s sexual offending history is observed, the more likely crossover patterns may emerge.

Why This Matters

Understanding whether perpetrators of child sexual abuse have a single “type” of victim has implications for the prevention, detection, and prosecution of sex crimes.

If investigators, clinicians, and communities assume that perpetrators only target one kind of victim, they may fail to recognize risk to others. Victims may not be believed if their experience does not match what is expected based on a perpetrator’s known history. Similarly, prevention efforts that focus narrowly on certain victim groups may overlook others who are also vulnerable.

The evidence suggests that while some perpetrators of sexual abuse may exhibit relatively stable victim patterns, a substantial minority do not. This highlights the importance of moving beyond assumptions and adopting a more nuanced understanding of sexual offending behavior.

Therefore, prevention efforts must be informed by what the research actually shows and not by myths about who perpetrators are or whom they target.