Child sex offenders can be divided into two categories: situational and preferential.
The situational child sex offender does not have a true sexual preference for children, but engages in sex with children because he or she is morally and/or sexually indiscriminate and wishes to 'experiment' with young sex partners.
Such offenders may also exploit children because they have entered into situations in which a child is easily accessible to them and/or certain disinhibiting factors are present which allow them to delude themselves about the child's age or consent to the sexual activity. Sexual exploitation of children may be a "once in a lifetime" act while on a holiday, or it may develop into a long term pattern of abuse.
According to Kenneth Lanning of the FBI Behavioural Science Unit, members of lower socio-economic groups tend to be over-represented among situational offenders. They tend to have low self esteem and are insecure. They turn to children as a non threatening sexual substitute for adult partnership.
Preferential child sex offender have a definite sexual preference for children. Psychiatry views their tastes for immature and powerless sexual partners as the manifestation of a personality disorder (hebephilia). They are smaller in numbers than situational offenders, but potentially can abuse larger numbers of children.
They are not a homogeneous group in terms of their modus operandi, and three major behaviour patterns have been identified.
'Seducers' use affection, attention and/or gifts to lure children. They are willing to spend long periods of time 'grooming' their victims in preparation for the abuse and use threats, blackmail and physical violence to discourage disclosure.
'Introverted' offenders have a preference for children, but lack the 'seducers' ability to interact with children. They engage in a minimum amount of verbal communication with victims, and tend to abuse unknown or very young children.
Third, and least common, are 'sadistic' offenders, who have a sexual interest in children, but also derive sexual pleasure from inflicting pain on their victims. This type of offender is most likely to use force to gain access to the child, and is more likely to abduct - even murder - the victim.
In a paper prepared for the World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, the author reasons that it is safe to assume that the majority of persons who exploit children are first 'prostitute users' who become child abusers through their prostitute use, and not paedophiles using prostitution as a means of access to children as sexual partners. Understanding why persons would purchase sex, helps to understand child sexual abuse in a commercial context.
Some clients of sex workers claim that they have a biological need for a sexual outlet. Others may visit prostitutes to develop a sense of camaraderie with colleagues or friends, or may find themselves unable to refuse in a group 'bonding session'. Still others may purchase sex to create a sense of 'masculinity' in the sense of having power over others.
Recently, staff at ECPAT New Zealand have organised speaking engagements with men's groups to expose the weaknesses in these claims and reasons. Men who are not offenders, but who might be witness to sexual abuse of children at some point are encouraged to speak out against it rather than maintain a silence. The talks were so popular that men's groups are now inviting ECPAT New Zealand to their functions.
The idea that females may exploit children became apparent in the Caribbean in the 1970s when single women visiting from North America picked up 'beach boys' as their companions. More recently, Western European women have been known to visit South East Asia for such encounters.
Sexual relations with older women are often considered to be a 'rite of passage' for young boys. However, when the child is a prepubescent boy, injections of hormones or similar chemicals into the testicles may be necessary and leave painful side effects. This is sexual abuse, not a rite of passage.
The sexual exploitation of children understandably evokes an emotional response. Given the high incidence of repeat offenses, many people feel that child sex offenders should be kept locked up. The treatment of offenders is often a strategy which is overlooked when dealing with the prevention of sexual exploitation and the protection of children. However, it has been said that the "only prospect of keeping children safe from abusers is [to] work…with the abusers in order to interrupt their cycle of offending. Such work, whether they deserve it or not. is simply the best form of child protection we have".
Research conducted in the UK and USA found that one of the most common characteristics exhibited by those who commit sexual crimes against children was their distortion of belief and attitude.
Such attitudes and beliefs are frequently sexualised forms of racism ("in this culture the girls are sexually mature at an earlier age"). They portray children as being responsible for their own abuse, unharmed by sexual contact with adults and able to consent to the abuse (the child has 'chosen' that way of life). The distortions allow the abusers to delude themselves that the child gains benefit from such contact (we are only 'helping' the child out by giving money).
Treatment programs that challenge these cognitive distortions and encourage the development of empathy with the children have met with some success.
It is more accurate and useful to use the term "child sex offender" to describe a person engaging in sex with a child, a term which includes but is not limited to paedophiles.