Hurtcore specifically is still a fairly new and unexplored concept meaning that motives and explanations for such behaviours are not well developed. However, to look at theories is a vital part of understanding and it is still possible to explore theories relating to online child sexual offending in an attempt to try and explain why those involved in hurtcore pornography offend in such a way.
According to Johnston (2016:online) Graham was ‘diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder, anxiety and depression’ and O’Neill (2015:online) quotes Graham to say he felt ‘ashamed’ of his sexual attraction to children. However accurate these may be coming from media articles that tend to exaggerate and embellish, particularly when describing prolific child sex offenders, it is clear that there are multiple potential reasons, including poor mental health, for why Matthew Graham created his ‘PedoEmpire’ (O’Neill:online). What is particularly interesting is that even Graham as the offender acknowledges his behaviour as morally wrong. However, many individuals suffer from depression, anxiety or personality disorders and yet not all of those offend and especially not against children.
One potential theory that can be used to explain why is Finkelhor’s 1984 Precondition model of child sex offending as it can be used to explain child sexual abuse and online sexual offending. The theory involves four ‘preconditions’ that must be met in order for sexual abuse to occur; motivation to offend, including sexual arousal, emotional incongruence or blockage, where they feel blocked from adult relationships; overcoming internal inhibitions, such as alcoholism or stress; overcoming external inhibitions, creating the opportunity for the offence to occur; and overcoming the child’s own resistance (Ward and Hudson, 2001). As a multi-faceted theory it can be used to explain online sexual offending against children as the internet can be used as a way to fulfil all preconditions whilst maintaining anonymity and a sense of safety, however, whilst there are psychological and social explanations behind each precondition, Ward and Hudson argue that how these interact and cause sexual offending in particular is not always clear.
Elliot and Beech (2009:187) developed Taylor and Quayle’s 2003 model of ‘problematic internet use’ relating the ‘distal’ factors such as early sexualisation, issues in ‘neuropsychological function’ such as loneliness and ‘proximal’ factors such as accessibility, to online sexual offending. The theory suggests that prolonged use of the internet may escalate behaviour, using the example of viewing child pornography escalating to contact offender as the offender socialises more on the internet. This would not explain how Graham refrained from offending himself, however, despite how much he socialised with individuals who sexually offended.
The viewing of child pornography can be split into two separate categories: ‘fantasy-driven offending’ and as a form of ‘contact sexual abuse’ (Merdian et al., 2011). This can be seen in the difference between Graham and Falder, the former who provided a platform for the images and videos but never participated, and the latter who actively sexually abused children. Lanning (2001) cited in Aslan (2011:413) came up with three typologies for online sexual offenders of children; situational offenders, who offends due to opportunity or impulsivity rather than targeting children; preferential offenders, who actively target children and may include serial offenders; and miscellaneous offenders who include reporters, pranksters and civilians and tend to access the material for non-sexual reasons. Aslan critiques these typologies noting that they are broad enough to encompass the multiple reasons there could be for offending online and it can be seen that both Graham and Falder fall into the ‘preferential offender’ typology, however, the types tend to overlap and there is no typology for an offender who exhibits more than one type. Meridan et al., note that preferential offenders are the more prolific typology of child sexual offenders, and this would likely to true too for individuals accessing hurtcore as well as miscellaneous offenders who may be accessing to report or investigate.
Therefore, whilst there are multiple theories to potentially explain why offenders sexually offend against children on the internet there is not enough research into hurtcore pornography to explain why they may wish to go to such lengths to view torture and pain against children, let alone actively participate and upload such videos.
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CR3004: Global crime, organised crime and cybercrime 