Focusing on the historical evolution of assessment procedures for criminal and sex offenders, this book explores developments from 1830 to the present. It highlights various methodologies that have emerged over the 19th and 20th centuries, aiming to connect past practices with contemporary approaches in the field of offender assessment.
Focusing on the mechanisms for controlling sex offenders, this book explores the historical context, current challenges, and critical issues surrounding the topic. It argues that existing strategies have not effectively resolved the social problem of sex offending, highlighting the complexities and limitations of current approaches.
Strengths and Weaknesses in Assessment and Intervention
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 comparisonof 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.