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Exhibiting an unprecedented rate of advancement, technology’s progression over the past two decades has regrettably led to a disturbing increase in the distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) online. Compounded by the emergence of an underground cryptocurrency market, which serves as a primary distribution channel for these materials, the investigation and sanctioning of CSAM present a complex and unique set of challenges. The purpose of this study is to accurately diagnose the CSAM sentencing landscape and build a more comprehensive, evidence-based legal framework in penology.

The study collected and analyzed case details regarding CSAM sanctions in a database sourced from the US Department of Justice for 2020. Various factors were analyzed such as the victim’s age, offender typology and previous conviction, accompanied by an analysis of how these factors affect the sentence length.

The study found that the hierarchical agency-level interactions give insight into resource allocation prioritization, as well as confirming a close relationship between prior conviction history and sentence length, with the victim’s age inversely related to sentence length. Leveraging data-driven insights, the study paves the way for more targeted and effective sanctions, ultimately contributing to the broader goal of safeguarding children from online sexual exploitation.

The paper provides a critical analysis of the complex landscape surrounding CSAM distribution and judicial sentencing. By examining case details and leveraging data-driven insights, it offers valuable contributions to understanding the interplay between various factors such as victim age, offender typology and prior convictions on sentencing outcomes. This comprehensive approach not only sheds light on the dynamics of CSAM sanctions but also lays the groundwork for evidence-based legal frameworks in penology. Its originality lies in its nuanced examination of hierarchical agency interactions and its potential to inform more targeted interventions for safeguarding children from online exploitation.

Adolescents with harmful sexual behaviors (AHSB) who drop out of treatment are more likely to continue offending than are those who complete treatment; therefore, it is important to identify factors that heighten the risk of dropout, so they can be detected early. The purpose of this paper is to present the predictors of treatment dropout derived from a community sample of AHSB in New Zealand.

Pretreatment data on 100 males (aged 12–16) in community-based treatment for harmful sexual behavior were analyzed. Data on 50 adolescents who dropped out were matched by age and ethnicity to 50 adolescents who completed treatment. Pretreatment variables were identified using the Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offence Recidivism. The degree to which these variables influenced treatment dropout was tested using logistic regression.

Compared to those who completed treatment, adolescents who dropped out were more likely to have a prior history of personal victimization, to deny or minimize their behavior, to have been mandated to attend treatment and to have engaged in noncontact offences.

Screening for a prior history of personal victimization, denial or minimization, mandated treatment and noncontact offences may facilitate the prediction of dropout risk more confidently. Addressing these pretreatment risk variables has the potential to improve treatment completion rates.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to highlight treatment dropout predictors in a New Zealand community sample.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether indicating victims of sexual attacks actively resisted their attacker or froze during their assault affected perceptions of victim blame, perpetrator blame and seriousness of the crime. We also tested whether victim and perpetrator gender or participants’ rape myth endorsement moderated the outcomes.

This study was a cross-sectional, vignette survey study with a 2 × 2 between-participants experimental design. Participants read a mock police report describing an alleged rape with a female or male victim who either resisted or froze, while perpetrator gender was adjusted heteronormatively.

Freezing and male victims were blamed more than resisting and female victims. Perpetrators were blamed more when the victim resisted, but male and female perpetrators were blamed equally. Seriousness of the crime was higher for male perpetrators and when the victim resisted. Female, but not male, rape myth acceptance moderated the relationship between victim behaviour and outcome variables.

This study highlights the influence of expectations about victim behaviour on perceptions of rape victims and the pervasive influence of rape myths when evaluating female rape victims. The data is drawn from the German border region of the Netherlands, which is an especially valuable population given the evolving legal definitions of rape in both countries.

Sexual harassment is a worldwide and prevalent problem that can have severe consequences. The #MeToo movement has highlighted that sexual harassment is not an isolated event and is linked to misogynistic cognitions and other forms of sexual violence. However, there is a lack of research regarding the relationship between sexual harassment and its nomological network, particularly in the general population. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the nomological network of harassment.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between perception of harassment and rape myths (RMS), with paraphilia (fantasy and behaviour) as mediators. In addition, the prevalence of paraphilia in the general population was explored and gender difference was analysed. Frequencies, Pearson's r correlations, independent sample t-tests and mediation analyses were conducted on a sample of n = 254 participants from the general population.

Analyses revealed that half of the sample have engaged in at least one paraphilia behaviour. Furthermore, correlations between a more lenient perception of harassment, RM acceptance and paraphilia were found, as well as significant gender differences. Finally, mediation models revealed a strong relationship between RM acceptance and a more lenient perception of harassment, with paraphilia mediating this relationship.

This study has several implications, highlighting the role of misogynistic cognitions in predicting a lenient perception of sexual harassment, and thus, proposing a key focus for prevention and intervention models.

This research is mostly conducted on male samples in these areas; thus, this study aimed to collect data from a diverse sample that may provide a better overview of sexual harassment and its nomological network.

This study aims to use a novel data set of 636 murderers sentenced to death in California to investigate homicide offenses that are committed but not prosecuted or officially solved, a concept known as the dark figure of crime.

Uaing appellate records from the Supreme Court of California, which contain extensive information about the offender’s background, criminal offense history and mental health diagnoses, it was revealed that one-third of the offenders in the sample have additional homicide offenses for which they likely bear responsibility, but were not prosecuted.

Most of these involve one or two additional homicides, though a wide range was observed spanning 0 to 93 additional victims. Those with a dark figure of murder and unsolved homicides had substantially more prior arrests, convictions and prison incarcerations and were higher in psychopathy, sexual sadism, homicidal ideation and gang involvement than offenders without a dark figure. Psychopathy and homicidal ideation were the most robust predictors of both the presence and magnitude of a dark figure of murder and unsolved homicides, whereas sexual sadism was inconsistently associated.

A disproportionate amount of the unsolved murders in the USA are likely perpetrated by the most pathological types of offenders, those with extensive antisocial careers and severe externalizing psychopathology.

The purpose of this study was to examine the internalization of group-level identities held by people who are on the sex offense registry and how these influence emotions and the willingness to accept treatment. The types and consequences of identities and stigmas are often examined at the individual level, but most people belong to groups that hold collective identities that can be detected in phrases such as “we, us, our,” etc.

Longitudinal data from 2008 to 2024 was used to examine registrant’s group identities. Interviews were conducted with 115 registrants and 40 of their family members, and narrative research analysis was used to assess how participants’ levels of liminality influence why some on the registry never come to see themselves as sex criminals.

Three group-level identities were found that corresponded with varying phases of liminality. The first group had a fixed mindset, no liminality and a strong sense of self. The second group of registrants had liminoid experiences, allowing them to change the way they saw themselves over time. This group had a growth mindset that believed change was attainable. The third group exhibited fixed mindset, as they either always saw themselves as sex criminals and required no transition or came to see themselves as sex offenders post-punishment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that have examined group-level identities among people convicted of sex crimes or what the consequences of group identities have on behavior.

Despite representing a relatively small portion of the population, those who experience repeat victimization make up a significant share of all sexual and violent crimes, implying that perpetrators target them repeatedly. Indeed, research reveals specific traits (e.g. submissiveness) and behaviors (e.g. gait) related to past victimization or vulnerability. The purpose of this study is to explore the link between personality traits, self-assessed vulnerability and nonverbal cues.

In all, 40 undergraduate Canadian women were videotaped while recording a dating profile. Self-report measures of assertiveness, personality traits and vulnerability ratings for future sexual or violent victimization were obtained following the video-recording. The videotape was coded for nonverbal behaviors that have been related to assertiveness or submissiveness.

Self-perceived sexual vulnerability correlated with reduced assertiveness and dominance and increased emotionality (e.g. fear and anxiety). Additionally, nonverbal behaviors differed based on personality traits: self-touch was linked to lower assertiveness, dominance and extraversion and higher submissiveness, emotionality and warm-agreeableness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to consider the relationships between personality, self-perceived vulnerability and nonverbal behaviors among college-aged women. Potential implications, including enhancing autonomy and self-efficacy, are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims and the factors that impact adoption of such behaviors.

This study used a sample of 880 young adults (18–25 years of age) who had experienced cyberstalking victimization within the previous 12 months. Data were collected through an online self-report survey hosted on Qualtrics from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers.

Results revealed that three-quarters of cyberstalking victims engaged in at least one form of self-protective behavior. The most commonly adopted self-protective behavior was blocking unwanted communications only (29%), while 40% of cyberstalking victims noted engaging in multiple forms of self-protective behaviors. While results varied across models, findings revealed that incident characteristics and respondent characteristics impacted the likelihood of engaging in self-protective behaviors after a cyberstalking victimization experience.

This study contributes to the literature examining the self-protective behaviors adopted by cyberstalking victims, which can shed light on other forms of cyber abuse and help explain victims’ low reporting rates to official sources (e.g. law enforcement).

Before psychological research is used for policy reforms and recommendations, it is important to evaluate its replicability, generalizability and practical relevance. This paper aims to examine these three criteria for published articles in the Journal of Criminal Psychology.

Through a literature search for published articles in the Journal of Criminal Psychology related to the topics of the special issue Contemporary Developments in the Retrieval and Evaluation of Witness Testimony: Towards making research more applicable to investigations, this paper identified 158 eligible articles. For each article, this paper extracted variables related to the type of article, reported p-values, type of sample and stimuli, power analyses and conducted analyses and how effect sizes were used and interpreted. This paper analyzed these variables descriptively and conducted a z-curve analysis.

In terms of generalizability, the articles examined populations of interest (e.g. offenders, prisoners) and there was no sole reliance on Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic samples. However, for replicability, there were currently no replication studies or published Registered Reports and the z-curve analysis indicated a low expected replication rate. Moreover, when examining practical relevance, almost no power analyses were conducted and when they were conducted, they were not reproducible or did not use meaningful effect sizes. Finally, although the majority of studies reported effect sizes, they were oftentimes not interpreted.

The present study sheds light on the potential societal impact of published articles in the Journal of Criminal Psychology.

The purpose of this study is to fill the research gap that exists with respect to availability of research on correctional facilities in India, which restricts one’s ability to comprehend the prison environment and recidivism from the perspective of the inmates. By examining inmates’ perception of their environment within correctional facilities, researchers and policymakers can identify specific aspects of the prison climate that may contribute to increased risks of reoffending. This understanding would not only help to improve prison conditions and encourage humane treatment, but it is also essential to support the inmates in their efforts to find and retain employment, achieve self-sufficiency and personal growth. It is also necessary to encourage the inmates to participate in a variety of therapeutic and prison programmes both inside and outside of prison to help them reintegrate into the community.

The present research investigated the association between negative perceptions of prison climate and the heightened probability of recidivism among a sample of 37 adult women convicts incarcerated in Tihar Prisons, Delhi. Data were obtained by administering CSS-M Hindi version and PCQ Hindi version to the convicts in person in the prison premises. Furthermore, the collected data were subjected to Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient to analyse the correlation between the probability of recidivism and the dimensions of prison climate.

Results suggested that negative perceptions of relationships in prison (staff–inmate relationship, inmate–inmate relationship), safety, facilities (cell conditions, food quality, etc.), meaningful activities (recreation, education, yard time, etc.) and autonomy in prison were inversely associated with a higher probability of recidivism. The results from the current study demonstrated that recognising and taking cognisance of the inmates’ perceptions of prison environment on their well-being and their probability of recidivism is crucial for the successful implementation of interventions and policies within correctional systems.

The sample size procured for the research was relatively small, as the number of available women convicts in Tihar Prison at the time of the research was limited, making it difficult to generalise the findings. In addition, this investigation included solely women convicts, while undertrials and detenues were excluded, and thus does not represent all the individuals in conflict with the law.

The findings of the current investigation allow for the formulation of potential policy recommendations for improving the prison climate, which in turn might consequently impact future criminality.

Policymakers may use these findings when developing policies that foster a rehabilitative prison environment, as it can help in reducing the incidence of recidivism.

This study is unprecedented in its approach, especially with respect to the Indian context, as it sheds light on the relatively understudied association between the variables of perceived prison climate and the probability of recidivism among women convicts in India. The findings of this study add to the current body of research indicating that subjective experience and perception of prison climate have a substantial influence on the likelihood of recidivism.