Sexual crime has a primarily genetic cause which can point to a fivefold increase in the chance male family members are also likely to offend.

Research from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found that a collection of genetic factors raised the likelihood of sexual crime in 40 per cent of people, opening the door to better targeting of anti-crime measures, while two per cent of the influence is environmental or learned.

“We report strong evidence of familial clustering of sexual offending, primarily accounted for by genes rather than shared environmental influences,” the study states.

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Citing difficulties in surveying on the subject, the researchers used 21,566 medical records over 37 years of men convicted of a sexual crime, including 6131 adult rapists and 4465 child molesters. Less than 1% of the offenders were female, the study states.

Looking at sexual crime conviction rates of male family members against those of a control group about 2.5 per cent of related men were convicted of similar crimes while the rate of offending was 0.5 per cent in the control group – a fivefold increase.

The study suggested measures such as “sexual boundary awareness, and improving their communication and conflict management skills” could help first degree family members avoid offending.

Pharmacological and psychological tools could also be used to combat “cognitive distortions, emotional instability and hypersexuality”.

“Obviously one has to be careful about not ostracising people,” Niklas Långström, Karolinska Institute professor of psychiatric epidemiology told The Guardian.

“It’s important that it does not become a public thing, where not only has your father committed a sexual offence, but you’re forced to attend mandatory courses.”