An Analysis of Adult-Child Sex Offenders in Two Selected South African Correction Facilities

Children continue to be victims of sexual offences that adults commit due to social contexts that enable this crime. Attending to the abuse of children demands a complete understanding of social context, which exacerbates the sexual victimisation of children by adult offenders. This paper focuses on the psycho-criminology factors of adults who sexually victimise children. An exploratory research design was adopted for the study on which this paper is based. The participants in this study comprise convicts of child sexual abuse (20), social workers, and psychologists sitting in two correctional facilities (11). The study was conducted using a qualitative approach aided by a thematic analysis method to pick up the themes that emerged during the interviews. It is noteworthy that the findings reveal six (6) main factors that prompt adults' sexual abuse of children, which are low self-esteem, past experience of abuse, illiteracy, opportunity, preference, and environment. So, to combat the epidemic of sexual abuse of children, the study suggests the establishment of a special unit within the SAPS with specialists' that will work and respond to problems associated with adult child sex criminals.