An Examination of the Home-Intruder Sex Offender

Abstract

One particular crime location in sexual assaults is the victim’s residence. Similar to sexual burglars, “home-intruder” sex offenders choose to assault the victim in her residence, most likely in their bedroom. The aim of the current study is to analyze modus operandi, temporal factors, and victim characteristics in a sample of 347 stranger sexual assaults committed by 69 serial sex offenders to determine which factors may be more relevant to sexual assaults committed in the victim’s residence compared with sexual assaults committed at another type of location. Our hypothesis is that offenders who choose to sexually assault victims in their home constitute a specific type of sex offender, one that resembles the sexual burglar. Results showed that modus operandi (e.g., burglary), temporal factors (e.g., time at crime scene with victim), and victim characteristics (e.g., age, victim-offender relationship) were significant in predicting whether the victim encounter, crime site, and victim release site were located at the victim’s residence or not. Moreover, these findings were generally significant across the three crime locations, which can be explained by the high consistency in location during home-intrusion sexual assaults. Situational crime prevention strategies aimed at making a residence less attractive for offenders should help reducing this particular type of sexual assault.