Combating online sexual offending and exploitation

Lecture by Dr. Derek Perkins
Tuesday, May 6, 2025, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Room B-3290, Jean-Brillant Pavilion, Université de Montréal, and online (Zoom)

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Summary : 

Internet-enabled sexual offending is one of the most rapidly growing offence categories in Western Europe and North America. It challenges the capacity of law enforcement, safeguarding, risk management and therapeutic services. Children increasingly access pornography sites through laptops, tablets and smartphones, either purposely or inadvertently, with implications for their sexual development and later beliefs and relationships. There is an increasing trend for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to be obtained directly from children - through ‘sexting’, grooming or blackmail - rather than through organised criminal networks. The internet has also enabled adult sexual exploitation, abuse and violence through so called ‘revenge porn’ mainly targeting females, sexual blackmailing of young males and the expanding networks of misogynistic groups, including the so called incel communities. This presentation sets out the scale of the problem, changes over time, aetiological factors in pathways to offending, deterrence and educational approaches, risk assessment, treatment and primary prevention. 

Biography : 

Dr. Derek Perkins

Dr Derek Perkins is a Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Visiting Professor of Forensic Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London. He has worked in sex offending services in prison, forensic mental health and community settings, and has published papers and book chapters on forensic psychology, sexual offending and personality disorder. He was formerly the Chief Psychologist at Broadmoor High Secure Hospital and for nearly twenty years a Trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse by intervening with people at risk of causing harm and enabling everyone to create a safer world for children. With his Co-Director Dr Hannah Merdian, he set up ‘onlinePROTECT’ in 2013, a research group studying internet-related sexual offending.