Half of human trafficking, child sex exploitation perpetrators start before age 25

Perpetrators of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking often start at a young age. Netagitve environmental factors seem to influence them much more than other criminals. Of the perpetrators, 52 percent are younger than 25 when they start their criminal activities. A quarter have already committed two crimes by that age.

That is according to a study into perpetrators of domestic sexual exploitation by the National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence against Children, Conny Rijken.

The research published on Wednesday looked for the first time at the criminal careers of 630 perpetrators of sexual exploitation. Many of them have not completed any education and are significantly more likely to be in a criminal social environment than the control group of perpetrators of other types of crime and non-criminals. Rijken paid particular attention to characteristics or circumstances that could reduce or increase the risk of criminal behavior.

Almost nine in ten have at least one criminal parent, sibling, or (ex) parent. For the criminal control group, that is 64 percent; for people who have not committed a crime, it is just under a quarter. Only three in ten perpetrators of domestic sexual exploitation have obtained a starting qualification at the age of 23. That is a diploma of at least HAVO, VWO, or MBO level 2. For the perpetrators in the criminal control group, this is 62 percent, and for the non-criminal group, it is 89 percent.

Rijken advocates for targeted interventions with these perpetrators, especially young people with a high-risk profile. “We see that perpetrators of sexual exploitation are also guilty of other criminal acts, both before and after committing human trafficking. In addition, probation advice must be requested and given for all perpetrators of domestic sexual exploitation because that specifically looks at what an offender needs not to commit the same crime again,” said the National Rapporteur.