Internet-based child sexual exploitation: case formulation and intervention planning. Workshop for professionals working with Users of Child Sexual Exploitation Material

The authors developed a ‘pathways model’ of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) offending. This showed how complex interactions between Offence-related propensities, Personal circumstances and the Internet Environment decreased engagement with the real world and increased the risk of CSEM offending. Using this model in clinical case formulation has proved useful in being: 1) Comprehensive - covering developmental / aetiological issues; the emergence of offence-related propensities (sexual deviance, antisociality and socio-emotional dysfunctionality); the development of protective or desistence-enhancing propensities (including enhancing social responsibility, empathy for others, problem solving skills); highlighting personal situational factors (including family, intimate relationship or work-related changes); and analysing the wider (internet-related) systemic factors; and 2) Collaborative - working with CSEM users in a process of shared enquiry and analysis, in which their own goals and ideas are elicited and reinforced. The model focuses on the establishment of functional links between the past (e.g., attachment and early sexual experiences), present (including offending circumstances and modus operandi) and future (aspirations and plans), and as such is in line with models concerned with contact sex offending. This workshop sets out how the pathways model has been developed, drawing on the theoretical and empirical background. We will then discuss a number of case studies to show how the model is used in clinical case formulation for treatment planning, risk management and the facilitation of offence desistence.