Jesse Cale

Griffith University · School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

The aim of the current study was to address a largely overlooked aspect of the lives of sexual offenders, that is, their non-criminal sexual lifestyles. Traditionally, clinical research on these men has had a strong focus on their development of deviant sexuality and its causes and relationship with sexual offending. Beyond this specific developmen...

The current study examines offending trajectories of adolescent sexual offenders (ASOs). Until recently, classification frameworks have not been designed to account for the heterogeneity of offending patterns in adolescence, how these are associated with the unfolding of sexual and non-sexual criminal activity, and whether and to what extent they a...

Addressing common myths and misconceptions about sexual offending, this book highlights the current state of scientific knowledge about the origins and the development of sexual offending. It offers a critical overview of current criminal justice policies and close to 100 years of research on how to best improve these policies through theoretically...

Research exploring online fraud has largely focused on victim characteristics, limiting our knowledge of the factors influencing individuals’ risk of engaging in fraud offenses. It is essential that researchers understand the early-onset risk factors for fraud offending to develop better strategies to prevent behavior and reduce victimization. To a...

A disproportionally large number of adolescents engage in cyber-deviance. However, it is unclear if distinct patterns of adolescent cyber-deviance are evident, and if so, whether and to what extent low self-control is associated with different patterns of cyber-deviance. The current study addressed this research gap by examining the relationship be...

This study provides an evaluation of recidivism outcomes for a specialized, field-based treatment program for youth who perpetrate sexual offenses in an Australian jurisdiction. Using survival analyses, recidivism outcomes for the treatment group ( n = 200), who were followed for an average of 5.07 years ( SD = 3.13), were contrasted with a sample...

Research has shown that psychosocial and behavioral factors are associated with engagement in a range of deviant behaviors across offline settings. To date, however, very little research has explored the impact of these factors in online contexts. This article addresses this gap by examining the psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with c...

Introduction: This study examined the association between program duration and rate of criminal conviction and hospitalisation for substance use up to 15 years later among young people admitted to a short-term residential program for drug and alcohol use. Methods: Data were derived from linked administrative records of all clients referred to a...

Juvenile populations face a substantial risk of emotional, physical, and psychological harm as a result of bullying and cyberbullying experiences. As a result, there is a need to assess the situational and individual factors contributing to the risk of bullying victimization. There is, however, little research examining cyberbullying victimization...

Crime rates in Australia have declined or been steady over the past decade yet prison populations are at all-time highs. Similarly, unemployment rates have been low but unemployment for those ex-prisoners seeking work is very high. In this paper, we draw on the findings of an Australia-wide survey of government-funded employment service providers w...

This study examines the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in a representative sample of young people under youth justice supervision in South Australia. The analysis showed that not only was the prevalence of ACEs particularly high in this population (89% experienced a combination of maltreatment and household dysfunction), but so...

The rise of the Internet has dramatically increased the degree to which youth may be exposed to online hate content, and simplified the process of sharing this content with others. Viewing messages that contain hate speech or language vilifying others can increase an individual’s risk of radicalization to extremist views and the acceptance of viole...

The South Australian Digital Youth Survey (DYS) is a world-first longitudinal project exploring how adolescents use digital technology, and how this use changes over the course of adolescence. The project examines the links between how adolescents use technology and pathways into cyber risk-taking. In studying these links, this project seeks to ide...

Objectives: The current study aims to generate insights from sexual offenders on noncompleted sexual offences, that is, on offences that were stopped or discouraged. Methods: Using a sample of sexual offenders who initiated a sexual offence but were stopped or discouraged in action, which we refer to as noncompleted offences, we first examine which...

The development of online technologies in recent decades has led to the proliferation of the distribution, consumption, and sale of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. This trend has arguably also contributed to the sexual abuse of children offline. In this context, many organizations, including financial institutions and police agencies, ha...

Introduction This study examines the association between treatment in a therapeutic community for adolescents with drug and alcohol problems on hospitalisation outcomes up to 15 years later for all clients, and separately for those with and without a history of criminal conviction. Method A quasi-experimental design was used to examine the linked...

There is much disagreement regarding the causes of sex offending, the probability of recidivism, and how to respond to perpetrators of sex offenses. While some of this disagreement stems from theoretical and ideological preferences, much of it also surrounds a lack of clarity regarding the heterogeneity of what constitutes a “sex offense.” Social j...

Concern over juvenile sexting behaviors has increased substantially over the last decade, leading to criminological inquiries of the correlates of sexting. Evidence suggests that sexting behavior is associated with one's level of self-control, such that individuals with low self-control are unable to constrain themselves from acting on opportunitie...

The development of online technologies in recent decades has facilitated the distribution and consumption of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) over the internet, which also led to the emergence of CSAM on the darknet-the segment of the internet hidden from the general public. Using data obtained from interviews with online investigators, this stud...

This systematic review synthesized current knowledge about the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among young people known to have offended and examined evidence of associations between ACEs, trauma symptoms, and offending behavior. A systematic search of English-language, peer-reviewed studies published from the year 2000 onwards w...

The South Australian Digital Youth Survey (DYS) is a world-first longitudinal project exploring how adolescents use digital technology, and how this use changes over the course of adolescence. The project examines the links between how adolescents use technology and pathways into cyber risk-taking. In studying these links, this project seeks to ide...

This review synthesises empirical studies from the past decade investigating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) production and distribution to gain insight into crime commission processes involved in these crimes. The findings highlight overlaps in risk factors for child sexual abuse and CSAM production and distribution, and possible unique risk fa...

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime argues individuals with low self-control are more likely to engage in crime on and off-line. There is less research considering the role of opportunity, as low self-control should increase individuals’ willingness to act on opportunities to offend. The importance of opportunity is distinct for cyber...

The study aims to generate insights from sexual offenders on the influence of internal states and how they perceive risks of apprehension and difficulties in the context of noncompleted sexual offenses, that is when offenders initiated the offense but were stopped or discouraged either before or during sexual contact. Adult males incarcerated for s...

Over the years, the societal construction of the sex offender has changed. This evolution has had an impact on the portrayal of perpetrators’ motivation and factors explaining their behavior. Theoretical developments have challenged such portrayals based on myths, misconceptions, and broad generalizations. This chapter provides an overview of theor...

Research and policy are primarily concerned with why individuals continue to sexually reoffend. This contrasts with life course criminology, which argues that since desistance from offending is the norm for even serious offenders, research should focus on why individuals do not continue to offend. This chapter reviews the evidence for sexual and no...

The chapter provides a recent historical perspective on sexual offending since the postwar era. This overview highlights that the social phenomena of sexual offending has been constructed or defined differently across generations. The chapter highlights the presence of four generational social constructions where the “sex offender” has been portray...

No other offenders have been under as much scrutiny as perpetrators of sex crimes. A vast amount of research has been conducted in hospitals, prisons, and community settings to identify what is unique about these perpetrators. The research has been so extensive that multiple meta-analyses have been conducted to shed light on what is unique about th...

The uneven history of sex offender treatment reflects the premise of this book: the relative absence of a rigorous scientific approach aimed at identifying the root cause of sexual offending and the factors responsible for its maintenance. In the absence of evidence-based information about the factors responsible for sexual offending, treatment pro...

Uncertainty about sex offender treatment, the emergence of a risk-oriented correctional philosophy, and the rise of populist justice movements in reaction to violent sexual crimes and homicides involving children were the key ingredients favoring the emergence of new sex offender laws in the 1990s. This chapter focuses on the implementation of thes...

Sexual offending is an important social problem with potentially dramatic and long-lasting consequences. It is a social phenomenon that leaves no one indifferent. When it occurs, it demands some concrete, near immediate, and swift actions. Over the years, these actions have been institutionalized through the criminal justice system and the (mental)...

After nearly a century of research investigating the causes, nature, and extent of sexual violence, widespread myths, misconceptions, and erroneous conclusions still persist about sex offending and the perpetrators of these behaviors. More specifically, there is a pervasive idea that sexual violence is widespread throughout the whole of society, is...

Sexual offending is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon. It encompasses a wide range of manifestations that can carry extremely harmful consequences to victims. To date, policies tackling the issue of sexual offending have been mainly reactive and constructed around high-profile and extremely violent acts. However, such high-profile cases are th...

In the past three decades, the criminal justice system in general, and corrections in particular, have been under the spotlight because of the media coverage of high-profile cases involving a sex crime. To address the issue, the prevention of sexual offending was gradually refocused toward the community protection of citizens against the threat of...

Technology has dramatically simplified the process of engaging in a variety of crimes, particularly the distribution of child exploitation materials, or CEM. The ability to share photos and video across the globe through high speed Internet connections and mobile devices has made it easy to access CEM. At the same time, technology has complicated t...

Background: Cross-sectional and retrospective offence data are often used to classify sex offenders in epidemiological and survey research, but little empirical evidence exists regarding the practical implications of this for applied research. This study describes the classification of sex offenders from a cohort of prisoners recruited as part of...

The internet has launched the world into an era into which enormous amounts of data are generated every day through technologies with both positive and negative consequences. This often refers to big data. This book explores big data in organisations operating in the criminology and criminal justice fields. Big data entails a major disruption in...

The current study investigated patterns in youth and adult criminal histories of perpetrators of sex offences who are identified as having low intellectual functioning. Using administrative information from a larger study on mental health disorders and cognitive disability in the criminal justice system, official criminal history data were obtained...

Background: Using cross-sectional and retrospective data to classify sex offenders has implications for epidemiological and survey research. However, there is little empirical evidence regarding the practical implications of these for applied research. This study describes the data linkage process and subsequent classification of sex offenders in a...

Background: Cross-sectional and retrospective offence data are often used to classify sex offenders in epidemiological and survey research, but little empirical evidence exists regarding the practical implications of this for applied research. This study describes the data-linkage process and subsequent classification of sex offenders in a cohort o...

People who commit sexual offences are a heterogeneous group, with research suggesting that children and young people commit a large proportion of all sex offences, especially those committed against other children. This systematic review provides a synthesis of literature concerning the characteristics of children and adolescents who exhibit harmfu...

Research in the health sciences has a long tradition of considering the impact of prenatal and perinatal health on child and adolescent development generally. This same consideration has not been echoed in the field of criminology where comparatively less research has investigated the link between prenatal and perinatal health and delinquency and o...

The South Australian Digital Youth Survey (DYS) is a world-first longitudinal project exploring how adolescents use digital technology and how this changes over the course of adolescence. The project examines the links between how adolescents use technology and pathways into cyber risk-taking. In studying these links, this project seeks to identify...

This report presents the findings of an evaluation undertaken to assess the impact that legislative and program changes have had on the effectiveness and efficiency of home detention (HD) in South Australia (SA). The evaluation was commissioned by the Department for Correctional Services (DCS) following the introduction of a series of reforms to ex...

An increasingly popular gender-specific intervention to assist women involved in the criminal justice system (e.g., ex-prisoners) is mentoring. However, despite the growing popularity of mentoring, there is a dearth of literature that has explored the intervention’s efficacy, particularly as it relates to women involved in the criminal justice syst...

The current chapter reviews the linkages between psychopathy and sexual aggression. The relationships are complex because certain facets of psychopathy are differentially associated with specific dimensions of sex crimes, and these relationships vary between types of sexual aggressors. There are also multiple pathways to sexual aggression, includin...

In 2016, the South Australian Government proposed expanding the use of Home Detention (‘HD’) sentences. A key concern of government and community alike regarding HD sentences has to do with the eligibility of prisoners for the sanction and, more specifically, the likelihood that individuals serving HD sentences will pose a threat to public safety w...

The current study examined the impact of vocational education and training in the custody setting on returns to custody among Australian adult prisoners from selected jurisdictions. Vocational education and training, education, and behavioural change programme participation in custody and demographic and risk assessment data were provided by correc...

In 2016 the South Australian Department for Correctional Services (DCS) began implementing a series of legislative and program reforms to expand the use of home detention and improve outcomes for those subject to the sanction. The multiple reforms included the introduction of Court Ordered Home Detention as a sentencing option, the expansion of Rel...

In December 2016, the South Australian Department for Correctional Services (DCS) commissioned a team of researchers from the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) and the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) at UNSW Sydney (the University of New South Wales) to undertake an evaluation of Home Detention (HD) in South Australia (SA). The evaluation aims...

The concept of bystander intervention is gaining popularity in universities as a mechanism to prevent sexual violence. Prior research has focused on correlates of bystanders’ intentions to intervene and intervention behaviors in situations where there is a risk of sexual violence. The current study builds on this literature by exploring the nature...

This article explores the ways in which young people experience the Internet as a potentially criminogenic medium. To date, little research has explored the possible links between the mundane, ubiquitous use of digital communication technologies by young people and involvement in delinquency in online contexts. The current empirical study seeks to...

Although youth homicide offenders (YHOs) are portrayed as a group that warrants considerable attention from the justice system because of their high likelihood of future offending, little is known about this group's offending trajectories and the nature of posthomicide offenses in adulthood. These questions were investigated using a sample of male...

Sexual violence against women is a serious problem worldwide. In this study, we organize and critically review previous empirical studies on sexual offenses against women through the lens of environmental criminology. For this purpose, we use the questions asked by environmental criminologists/crime analysts in the study of crime events; that is th...

This chapter examines historical and current developments in situational approaches to sexual offending. We consider the implications of situational theories for clinical and risk management responses to known sexual offenders, and more widely for the prevention of sexual offending. We conclude that situational factors are a theoretically and pract...

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between child abuse, depression, and patterns of Intimate Partner Violence victimization among female university students in Australia and New Zealand. Data were based on the Australia/New Zealand portion of the International Dating Violence Study (2001–2005) (n=293). Using Latent Class Analysis...

Several explanations have been proposed to explain the origins and the development of rape and sexual aggression against women. For the most part, the first three generations of research and theorizing provided an inherently static view of the propensity among males to commit a sexual aggression, providing little information about the developmental...

Background: Very little is understood about the developmental antecedents of sexual behaviour prior to adolescence. Aims: Our aim was to examine the impact of different forms of intimate partner violence on early childhood sexual development. Methods: We used data from an ongoing prospective longitudinal cohort study of Canadian families. Inti...

With a population of just over 22 million people, Australia is a relatively safe country. Rates of personal and property crime are quite low by international standards, and comparable to, if not lower than, a number of other English-speaking Western industrialized nations (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2013). However, as in many other W...

How to prevent child sexual abuse in youth-oriented organisations is a concern in our society for a number of reasons. One of these is that evidence indicates that sexual offenders, once they are recruited by a youth-oriented organisation, have the opportunity to abuse children for years before being detected and/or arrested. This phenomenon is als...

A critical line of research pertaining to the criminal careers of sexual offenders has been concerned with the continuity of sexual offending behavior over the life course. If adult sexual offenders were not typically juvenile sexual offenders, then two particularly important questions are: (1) What do their antisocial developmental backgrounds loo...

Where sexual offending is considered at all in developmental and life-course criminology (DLC) theories, it is generally understood to occupy a position at more serious end of a continuum of irresponsible, socially deviant, or unlawful behavior. Thus DLC theories explicitly or implicitly assume that the same concepts and principles that apply to al...

Child sexual abuse is considered a risk factor for the development of sexual offending in adolescence. Beyond this, comparisons of the risk factor profiles between adolescent sex offenders (ASOs) and adolescent non-sex offenders (ANSOs) have uncovered minimal differences. However, differences between ASOs and ANSOs in terms of patterns in the abuse...

Currently, minimal research has been conducted worldwide on the phenomenon of child sexual abuse in youth-oriented institutions, despite increasing number of accounts that are coming to the attention of authorities and the wider public on these sex crimes. Addressing the lack of research on these offenders and how they offend is critical in develop...

There is significant interest in the issue of child sexual abuse committed in institutional settings. This study uses information collected from a sample of 23 convicted Canadian sex offenders to examine key elements of the offending. Issues explored include the nature of the offender’s involvement with institutions, their own prior sexual victimis...

Most criminal justice responses to address sexual violence and abuse against children are aimed at identifying and incarcerating offenders or at best, trying to prevent them from reoffending. This policy situation, primarily characterized by tertiary intervention strategies, is exacerbated by a lack of evidence-based knowledge about the circumstanc...

The current study claims that measures of sexual recidivism provide a distorted view of the criminal activity of adult sex offenders. To address this important limitation, the criminal career perspective is presented and key concepts are defined and described. The study also provides an up-to-date review of the scientific literature on various crim...

Weapon use in the commission of crimes and its associated outcomes has received much attention in criminology. However, the empirical literature on the relationship between weapon use and specific sexual abuse outcomes in sexual offenses against women is less abundant and characterized by substantial limitations. Drawing on the rational choice appr...

Currently, a majority of actuarial risk-assessment tools for sexual recidivism contain static risk factors that measure various aspects of the offender's prior criminal history in adulthood. The goal of the current study was to assess the utility of extending static risk factors, by using developmental and criminal career parameters of offending, i...

Recent studies suggest that sexual aggressors of women are characterized by early- and late-onset antisocial trajectories. However, these studies have not examined the role of mating effort and its role on sexual offending in adulthood. This study examined differences in the level of mating effort of early- and late-onset offenders and the associat...

Several policies have been implemented to manage the risk of sex offenders in the community. These policies, however, tend to target older repeat sex offenders. This is the first study to examine and describe the offending trajectories of adult sex offenders from early adolescence to adulthood. The current study is based on a quasipopulation of con...

The current study presents the results of the first Canadian national study on the characteristics of repeat homicide offenders and the factors associated with homicide recidivism. The research involves an analysis of National Parole Board (NPB) files for all homicide offenders in Canada who committed more than one homicide ( n = 86) between 1975 a...

Recent explanatory models of sexual aggression of women have emphasized the role of an antisocial tendency in explaining sexual aggression. If those models agree about the importance of an antisocial propensity, they disagree about the presence of a single or multiple pathways leading to sexual aggression. Currently, no empirical studies have exami...

The study investigated the behavioral antecedents of deviance in sexual aggressors and how they relate to sexual offending. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 553 convicted sexual aggressors to gather data on developmental history. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the behavioral antecedents. Results indicated the pres...

Distinct typologies of sexual aggressors of women have been established over the years to explain the heterogeneity these offenders exhibit. To date, typologies have typically distinguished these offenders based on differences in victim and offence characteristics, the motivation for the offence, and, the level of risk of reoffending posed by the o...

Thesis (M.A.)--Simon Fraser University, 2004. Includes bibliographical references.