Posted by Afterthought on March 18, 2004 at 15:33:03
In Reply to: Offender Typologies posted by anovagrrl on March 18, 2004 at 14:23:00:
The problem with offender typologies is that very few people are "pure" types. If you think of the fixated/regressed types as end points on a continuum, then you realize that many people fall along the continuum at points that mix characteristics of the two.
Berg, for example, had many of the characteristics of a regressed pedophile. He was, however, a particularly vicious predator. Going back to the most general description of a predator in my article, we could easily say Berg showed an "exploitative pattern of sexual behaviour involving differentials of power that is pathological, cyclical, recurrent and enduring."
Bottom line is, human behavior is extremely complex, and very few people--including offenders--fit into neatly defined categories. Nevertheless, it is still important to create profiles of sexual offenders so that we can assess and manage the risk of re-offending. The "fixated/regressed" model is a classic model, but it is undoubtedly dated and insufficient in many ways. I'm fairly certain that criminologists have done more advanced refinements of sex offender typologies.