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The purpose of this paper is to examine the dark figure of crime among federal sex offenders from the USA to quantify crime victims and sex crime events among those with no official criminal record.

Using data on 119 offenders selected from a five-year census of sex offenders selected from a federal probation jurisdiction in the Midwestern United States, descriptive, partial correlations, and ROC-AUC models were conducted.

In total, 69 percent of offenders self-reported a contact sexual offense during polygraph examination. In total, 34 offenders had zero official record of sexual abuse but non-zero self-reported history of sexual abuse. These 34 clients offended against 148 victims that potentially denoted a minimum number of 148 sex crime events, a median number of 1,480 sex crime events, a mean number of 32,101 sex crime events, and a maximum number of 827,552 sex crime events. Total paraphilias were not predictive of self-reported sexual offending but were strongly associated with prolific self-reported sexual offending.

The dark figure of sexual offending is enormous and the revelation of this information is facilitated by polygraph examination of federal sex offenders. Ostensibly non-contact sex offenders such as those convicted of possession of child pornography are very likely to have a history of contact sexual offending. Consistent with the containment model, polygraph examinations of the sexual history of offenders convicted of sexual offenses should be required to facilitate public safety.

Although most aetiological theories of crime assume that offenders are a distinct subset of the population, there is evidence that many illegal acts are committed by people who have no convictions and are therefore not regarded as criminals. The question consequently arises as to whether there are aspects of illegal actions that set convicted offenders apart. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To answer this, a 45-item self-report questionnaire was administered to two samples (males 15-29 years): 185 prisoners and 80 young men without convictions.

The results draw attention to a distinguishing psychological dimension of instrumentality operating across the range of offence forms. Convicted offenders are more likely to commit crimes for direct gratification with intent when compared with the sorts of illegal activities that non-convicted respondents report they have done.

Careful matching of convicted criminals and those without convictions is extremely difficult. Future research that explores other non-criminal samples would therefore be of value.

Interventions with people who commit crimes need to carefully distinguish between those who are determined criminals and those whose activities are more likely to be part of an opportunistic culture.

The results challenge conceptualisation of criminals and criminality as something always distinct from those without convictions. It thus has implications for what theories of crime should seek to explain. The significance of instrumentality also give further force to the legal emphasis on men's area.

That psychopathy imposes substantial societal costs and economic burden is axiomatic, but monetization studies have overlooked cost estimates of the disorder. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing on a near census of institutionalized delinquents from Missouri, the current study devised new crime cost measures for self-reported offending.

Youth imposed $30 million in total costs annually in large part due to extensive involvement in robbery, theft, and assault. The most criminally active youth imposed costs in excess of $700 million. Psychopathy features were differentially correlated with crime costs. APSD-SR callous-unemotional traits, mPPI-SF Blame Externalization, mPPI-SF Machiavellian Egocentricity, and mPPI-SF Social Potency were significantly associated with between four and five crime costs. Psychopathic traits associated with ruthless self-interest, callousness, and expectations to control and dominate others manifest in diverse ways including serious violence and repeated property crime. Other features such as mPPI-SF Impulsive Nonconformity, mPPI-SF Stress Immunity, mPPI-SF Coldheartedness, mPPI-SF Carefree Nonplanfulness, mPPI-SF Fearlessness, APSD-SR Impulsivity, and APSD-SR Narcissism had limited associations with crime costs.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first monetization study to quantify the effects of assorted psychopathy features on crime costs.

This study aims to investigate the influence of social camouflaging on victimisation and offending in relation to autism and pathological demand avoidance (PDA) traits. Camouflaging aims to overcome or conceal difficulties in social and communication skills. Autistic individuals report camouflaging in response to threat and being verbally and physically assaulted when they have not camouflaged. Thus, camouflaging could be associated with victimisation. Camouflaging could also impact on specialist support available to an individual, potentially increasing the risk of victimisation or offending.

Cross-sectional study was conducted using 220 participants from the general population who completed online questionnaires measuring victimisation and offending, autism and PDA traits, camouflaging and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Correlational analysis found positive associations between camouflaging and victimisation, and camouflaging and lifetime offending. Greater camouflaging and PDA traits predicted greater offending, whereas greater autism traits predicted fewer offending behaviours. While correlated, camouflaging was not significantly predictive of victimisation. Victimisation was predicted by symptoms of depression and PDA traits.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to consider camouflaging as an influencing factor on offending and victimisation in autistic and PDA individuals.

This study aims to exploratively compare several characteristics of 330 offending and non-offending Dutch subjects, seeking advice/help from child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention helpline Stop it Now!-The Netherlands (SiN-NL).

With a retrospective cross-sectional design, SiN-NL contact logs between March 2012 and June 2016 were investigated.

Results revealed a few interesting differences and similarities. Contrary to earlier findings, attraction to minors and especially boys did not distinguish offenders and non-offenders. However, intimate partner status, suicidal tendencies and expectation of the helpline differed significantly between the study samples. Also, the relevance of several self-reported CSA promoting and impeding factors varied between groups. The non-offender group more often indicated fear of consequences and avoidance of risk situations to be constraining factors, whilst the offender group more frequently suggested benefiting from professional help and social support.

The results of this study might inform different forms of prevention and treatment programs aimed at similar help-seeking individuals. Because of their perceived CSA promoting potential by help seekers, access to children and substance abuse are important topics to address by operators and taken into account when assessing offending risk. In contrast to earlier findings, sexual orientation did not differentiate offenders from non-offenders and might play a less significant role. Higher rates of suicidal tendencies and need for help and therapy could imply that, compared to non-offenders, offenders require a more cautious approach and additional care.

To our knowledge this is the first study to investigate self-reports of offending and non-offending subjects, seeking advice/help from a CSA prevention helpline.

Claims that people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are overrepresented in offending populations and are more likely to commit crimes than others are explored in this review. Evidence to date makes these claims difficult to substantiate, although methodological difficulties make this area particularly challenging. ASD does not appear to account for a large number of crimes in society, though certain characteristics may render those on the spectrum vulnerable to offending. Comorbid psychiatric conditions such as depression and psychosis, when present in a person that additionally has ASD, are important risk factors. Once in the criminal justice system, people with ASD are often misunderstood and open to bullying. Very little is known about what treatment programmes are effective for offenders in this population. This review summarises some of the important studies in this field.

Purpose – This paper updates a review of research on crime among migrants in Switzerland, published in 1997.

Methodology – Review of national survey data and statistics published since 1997.

Findings – Recent statistics as well as surveys (of victimization and self-reported delinquency) show disproportionate levels of offending among migrants. Data from victimization surveys further show that victims do not report offences more often to the police whenever they suspect the offender being a foreign national. Self-report surveys show that delinquent involvement is, particularly for violent offences, higher among migrant youths than among Swiss-born juveniles. According to comparative international survey data, offending among migrant youths from Balkan countries is far more common in Switzerland than among adolescents living in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Implications – The conditions of socialization within the immigration context may be more important than cultural factors.

Value – Combining statistics, victimization surveys and self-report studies at the national level, with survey data from areas where migrants come from.

Global evidence suggests that youth offending has reduced; however, this study aims to suggest a more complex picture, with youth crime potentially being displaced to the digital space. Historically, young people and crime have been synonymous with public spaces and being visible. A shift or expansion to online offending requires revision of how the justice and educational systems respond to youth offending.

A systematic literature review explored keywords related to age, digital offence or harm and criminal or harmful nature, using a search, appraisal, synthesis and analysis framework.

Three emergent areas of digital youth crime are discussed: digitally assisted crime, digitally dependent crime and digital harm.

The shift in youth offending requires response adjustment from prevention to detection. Opportunities may exist to disrupt or redirect youth before they offend. Further data specific to digital offending is needed. These findings seek to provide a possible direction for future research.

The concept of digital displacement of youth offending is progressively emerging. This paper examines types of offending categorised into three areas of interest.

The paper builds on and extends the existing research on self‐control theory and fraud. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether low self‐control increases the odds of engaging in two common forms of fraudulent behaviors: check and credit card frauds.

The paper addresses these issues using a national, longitudinal sample of young adults.

The results of the multivariate logistic regression models indicate that individuals with lower levels of self‐control are more likely to engage in credit card and check frauds. These findings support Gottfredson and Hirschi's theoretical argument that fraudulent behavior is similar to acts of force in that it too is explained by the same underlying trait – low self‐control.

The paper underscores the importance of low self‐control in the etiology of fraudulent behaviors. Future researchers should examine the relationship between low self‐control and other fraudulent behaviors, particularly those occurring in the workplace (e.g. embezzlement).

Suggestions for preventing credit card and check frauds through situational crime prevention are provided.

The paper improves upon prior research by using a more representative sample and self‐reported fraudulent behavior.

Greater parental monitoring is commonly associated with reduced delinquent behavior in adolescents, yet less is known about the extent to which parental monitoring behavior changes after a child is arrested for the first time. The present study examines the extent to which mothers’ monitoring behaviors (i.e., parental monitoring knowledge and effort) change in association with juvenile recidivism after their sons’ first arrest, operationalized through both youth-reported recidivism and official re-arrest records. Mother–son dyads (total N = 634) across three states were interviewed in two waves over 30 months following the youth’s first arrest. Mothers who reported both more monitoring knowledge and effort at Wave 1 had sons who self-reported less recidivism and were less likely to be re-arrested at Wave 2. Repeated sons’ re-arrests were associated with a change in mothers’ monitoring behavior, as both parental knowledge and parental effort significantly increased from Wave 1 to Wave 2 when youth have been re-arrested more than once, relative to youth who had never been re-arrested. No change in monitoring behaviors were observed in association with youth-reported recidivism, and mothers who stated an intention to change their monitoring habits at Wave 1 did not necessarily do so by Wave 2. The findings point to the ability of parents to modulate their monitoring behavior to respond to chronic juvenile offending. This provide an opportunity for practitioners to work with parents to improve their monitoring skills, to ensure rehabilitative gains that result from justice system intervention are maintained in the home via parental monitoring.