Citation

Seto MC. Sex. Abuse 2019; 31(1): 3-24.

Affiliation

1 Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, Brockville, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1079063217720919

PMID

28715948

Abstract

In this article, I describe the motivation-facilitation model of sexual offending, which identifies the traits of paraphilia, high sex drive, and intense mating effort as primary motivations for sexual offenses, as well as trait (e.g., antisocial personality) and state (e.g., intoxication) factors that can facilitate acting on these motivations when opportunities exist. Originally developed to explain contact sexual offending against children, the motivation-facilitation model was subsequently extended as an explanation for child pornography offending and for online solicitations of young adolescents. Here, I argue it has the potential to be expanded to explain other forms of sexual offending, including sexual assaults of adults and noncontact offenses involving exhibitionism or voyeurism. In this review, I critically examine the evidence for and against the model, discuss its limitations, and identify critical gaps for future research.

Language: en

Keywords

child pornography; child sexual abuse; dynamic risk factors; facilitation; motivation; sexual offending