Criminological research and criminal justice practice typically treat sexual offending as a specialized category. This talk examines that assumption, drawing on two empirical studies of sexual and violent offenders and their criminal trajectories.

Both studies are based on Norwegian total-population register data linking criminal justice records to education, income, and family background at the individual level across the life course — a data infrastructure that allows criminal career analysis at the population scale.

The first study uses data on all men convicted in a two-year window (n = 36,951), including 142 convicted of rape, and traces their full criminal histories and subsequent recidivism across offense categories. The second follows multiple total birth cohorts of 15-year-olds (n = 388,814), focusing on juveniles charged with sexual offenses before the age of criminal responsibility and tracking their criminal trajectories into adulthood, compared to other juvenile offenders and those with no early onset.

Both studies suggest that sexual offenders have some distinct characteristics, but their careers are embedded in broader patterns of violent offending. The boundaries between sexual and violent criminal careers are more porous than typologies assume.

Torbjørn Skardhamar is professor of sociology at the University of Oslo (UiO). Before joining UiO, he worked 10 years at Statistics Norway’s research unit, Group for Social and Demographic Research. His work spans register-based studies of criminal careers, recidivism, and residential segregation, drawing on linked demographic, economic, and criminal justice data across the life course.

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