Cohort Study of Indecent Exposure in the Netherlands from 2012 to 2020: Incidents, Perpetrators, Victims, and Trends over Time

Abstract

Indecent exposure is often regarded as a nuisance offense and detailed studies into this topic are relatively rare. However, there is consensus that relatively high recidivism rates and risk of escalation to more severe offenses can be of serious concern among these perpetrators. This cohort study aims to increase our general knowledge on the basic characteristics of these offenses and includes all registered police cases of indecent exposure in the Netherlands between 2012 and 2020, including 6741 incidents, involving 4663 suspects and 3808 registered victims. This first study of a large cohort over a long period of time describes the basic characteristics of these incidents, the perpetrators and their victims, and visualizes the results to explore trends over time. Results show that a modal indecent exposure incident is perpetrated by a 25-year-old male, on foot, on a public road, on a Wednesday afternoon in July, masturbating and directing his genitals intentionally toward a 13-year-old girl. The age distribution of victims shows remarkable similarity to victims of sexual assault. Compared to the first year of the period studied, the number of annually reported incidents gradually declined to half in the last year of the study. Findings are discussed in light of the most prominent theories on exhibitionism. Issues and suggestions relevant to apprehension and treatment of perpetrators are identified and discussed.