Internet sexual solicitation of children: A proposed typology of offenders based on their chats, e-mails, and social network posts
Abstract
Although researchers have examined sexual solicitation of minors online, there is limited research on the content and patterns of victim-offender chats. These chats have potential use in investigations for triaging and prioritising cases, enhancing understanding of offenders, developing treatments, and crafting education and policy to prevent sexual solicitation of minors online. As part of a broader effort on Internet crimes against children (ICAC), we examine offender chat logs, email threads, and social network posts from state and local task forces on ICAC for a sample of 200 offenders in communications with undercover officers. We use mixed-methods analyses to identify key elements in these cases and propose a typology of online solicitation offenders: cybersex-only offenders, schedulers, cybersex/schedulers, and buyers. These findings provide support and expansion of existing research on offender types using a larger and more geographically diverse sample. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Interactions with decoys have identified different offender motivations: some aim to arrange an offline meeting to sexually abuse what they believe to be a child, while others aim to use the online contact for cybersex and masturbation.
“When it comes to online contact, interactions with decoys have identified different offender motivations.Some aim to arrange an offline meeting to sexually abuse what they believe to be a child (Lorenzo-Dus et al., 2016;Winters et al., 2017), while others aim to use the online contact for cybersex and masturbation (DeHart et al., 2017).”
From Offender strategies for engaging children in online sexual activity (2021) · cites this paper as DeHart et al., 2017
More fine-grained typologies have been proposed such as cybersex-only offenders, cybersex/schedulers, schedulers, and buyers.
“thus more finegrained typologies have been proposed 3 such as 1) cybersex-only offenders (fantasy-driven), 2) cybersex/schedulers (mixed type), 3) schedulers (contact-driven), and 4) buyers (contact-driven; DeHart et al., 2017).”
From 3.2 Sexual Online Grooming of Children – A Short Overview of the Offender Literature (2025) · cites this paper as DeHart et al., 2017
Cites
The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers
Saldaña, J. (2025) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781036235611 · Cited by 19,156 · see citing works
Consensual qualitative research: An update.
Hill, C. E., Knox, S., Thompson, B. J., Williams, E. N., Hess, S. A., & Ladany, N. (2005) · Journal of Counseling Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.196 · Cited by 2,841 · see citing works
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K. J., & Ybarra, M. L. (2008) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.63.2.111 · Cited by 537 · see citing works
The characteristics of online sex offenders: A meta-analysis
Babchishin, K. M., Karl Hanson, R., & Hermann, C. A. (2011) · Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1177/1079063210370708 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later
Wolak, J., Mitchell, K. J., & Finkelhor, D. (2006) · PsycEXTRA Dataset · doi:10.1037/e525892015-001 · Cited by 300 · see citing works
Text mining : applications and theory
Berry, M. W., & Kogan, J. (2010) · Cited by 288 · see citing works
Writing the Proposal for a Qualitative Research Methodology Project
Sandelowski, M., & Barroso, J. V. (2003) · Qualitative Health Research · doi:10.1177/1049732303013006003 · Cited by 284 · see citing works
Briggs, P., Simon, W. T., & Simonsen, S. (2011) · Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1177/1079063210384275 · Cited by 265 · see citing works
Youth Internet Users at Risk for the Most Serious Online Sexual Solicitations
MITCHELL, K., FINKELHOR, D., & WOLAK, J. (2007) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2007.02.001 · Cited by 230 · see citing works
Marcum, C. D., Higgins, G. E., & Ricketts, M. L. (2010) · Deviant Behavior · doi:10.1080/01639620903004903 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Entrapping the innocent: Toward a theory of child sexual predators’ luring communication
Olson, L. N., Daggs, J. L., Ellevold, B. L., & Rogers, T. K. K. (2007) · Communication Theory · doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2007.00294.x · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Understanding online child pornography use: Applying sexual offense theory to internet offenders
Elliott, I. A., & Beech, A. R. (2009) · Aggression and Violent Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.avb.2009.03.002 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
Malesky, L. A. (2007) · Journal of Child Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1300/j070v16n02_02 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Alexy, E. M., Burgess, A. W., & Baker, T. (2005) · Journal of Interpersonal Violence · doi:10.1177/0886260505276091 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Kontostathis, A., Edwards, L., & Leatherman, A. (2010) · doi:10.1002/9780470689646.ch8 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Trends in Unwanted Sexual Solicitations: Findings from the Youth Internet Safety Studies
Mitchell, K. J., & Jones, L. M. (2014) · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Online interactions involving suspected paedophiles who engage male children
Grosskopf, A. (2010) · doi:10.52922/ti279750 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Adults' Sexual Interest in Children and Adolescents Online: A Quasi-Experimental Study
Bergen, E., Antfolk, J., Jern, P., Alanko, K., & Santtila, P. O. (2013) · Åbo Akademi University Research Portal · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Internet-Facilitated Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Mitchell, K. J., & Jones, L. M. (2013) · University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository (University of New Hampshire at Manchester) · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Gámez-Guadix, M., & Mateos-Pérez, E. (2019) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.004 · Cited by 124 · see citing works
Offender strategies for engaging children in online sexual activity
Joleby, M., Lunde, C., Landström, S., & Jonsson, L. S. (2021) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105214 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
“Some aim to arrange an offline meeting to sexually abuse what they believe to be a child (Lorenzo-Dus et al., 2016; Winters et al., 2017), while others aim to use the online contact for cybersex and masturbation (DeHart et al., 2017).”
Gámez-Guadix, M., De Santisteban, P., & Alcazar, M. Á. (2018) · Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1177/1079063217724766 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Broome, L. J., Izura, C., & Lorenzo-Dus, N. (2018) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.02.021 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Martellozzo, E. (2013) · doi:10.4324/9780203124116 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Ringenberg, T. R., Seigfried-Spellar, K., & Rayz, J. (2024) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2023.108071 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Moosburner, M., Weber, C., Kuban, T., Wachs, S., Schmidt, A. F., Etzler, S., & Rettenberger, M. (2026) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/15248380251316223 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
3.2 Sexual Online Grooming of Children – A Short Overview of the Offender Literature
Schmidt, A. F. (2025) · Sexual Online Grooming of Children · doi:10.5771/9783748903291-135 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- DeHart, D., Dwyer, G., Seto, M. C., Moran, R., Letourneau, E., & Schwarz-Watts, D.
- Affiliations
- University of South Carolina (US)
- Medical University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, USA
- Corresponding author
- DeHart, Dana
- Venue
- Journal of Sexual Aggression
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-10-14
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 77-89
- ISSN
- 1355-2600 (ISSN-L)
- 1742-6545
- OpenAlex
- W2530167541
- Cited by
- 102
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 6 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 18.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Sexual Aggression (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Social Sciences › Law › Legal and Social Justice Studies
- Keywords
- offender typology, undercover investigation, cybersex, child sexual exploitation, social media posts, email threads, prevention policy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
