Examining Criminal Career of Child Lurers in Quebec

• In Event: Sexual Offenders over the Life Course

Abstract

This study explores the criminal careers of individuals suspected of or arrested for child luring in the Province of Quebec since 2002. Its goal is to provide insight into the criminal career patterns of such individuals and to demonstrate how the criminal career paradigm helps us understand the crime patterns of child luring offenders. To achieve this we extracted the profiles of all subjects who had been involved in at least one child luring criminal offence (suspected or convicted) from a police events database. We then obtained information on the victim and the event by searching for both name and event. All the data was provided by the Quebec provincial police (Surete du Quebec). Results showed that, if arrests for misconduct are ignored, half of the 292 subjects had only a single offence. In the other half, only 1 subject out of 4 had been arrested again for a sexual crime; the other three-quarters had engaged in criminal activities ranging from violence to misconduct. Results also showed different patterns regarding hands-on offences. Implications for the risk assessment of those subjects will be discussed.

Authors

• Francois Massicotte, Université de Montréal

• Francis Fortin, Université de Montréal

• Eric Chartrand, Université de Montréal