A System for the Classification of Child Molesters

Abstract

Although descriptive studies have demonstrated that child molesters are heterogeneous on numerous variables (Knight, Rosenberg, & Schneider, 1985), no classification systems have been constructed that divide child molesters into reliable, cohesive subgroups. This critical gap in our knowledge hampers the efficacy of clinical decisions about the treatment, management, and disposition of these offenders. The child molester typology presented here has been developed to fulfill the need for a clearly operationalized, reliable, valid system to address the problem of the manifest diversity of these offenders. This typology is the product of a research program that has integrated both deductive/rational and inductive/empirical strategies for generating and testing taxonomic systems (Knight, 1988; Knight & Prentky, in press). We present here the criteria for applying this system and the interrater reliability coefficients for assigning a sample of committed offenders to these proposed types.

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