Treatment of sex offenders: Strengths and weaknesses in assessment and intervention

Abstract

This rigorous survey offers a comprehensive rethinking of the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders for a bold challenge to practitioners. It critiques what we understand about offenders and the mechanisms of offending behaviors, and examines how this knowledge can best be used to reduce offending and relapses. To this end, experts weigh the efficacy of common assessment methods and interventions, the value of prevention programs, and the validity of the DSM's classifications of paraphilias. This strengths/weaknesses approach gives professional readers a guide to the current state as well as the future of research, practice, and policy affecting this complex and controversial field. Included in the coverage: Strengths of actuarial risk assessment. Risk formulation: the new frontier in risk assessment and management. Dynamic risk factors and offender rehabilitation: a comparison of the Good Lives Model and the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model. The best intentions: flaws in sexually violent predator laws. Desistance from crime: toward an integrated conceptualization for intervention. From a victim/offender duality to a public health perspective. A call to clear thought and accurate action, Treatment of Sex Offenders will generate discussion and interest among forensic psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers.