Main description:

Sex offenders, and in particular paedophiles, have been the subject of much political and media attention, producing intensive debates about the best way of dealing with them. This book explores these issues, evaluating the measures in use or being considered, including drug treatment, MAPPA, the use of the Sex Offender Register, restorative justice techniques, and treatment programmes. It is concerned with high-risk sex offenders both when they are sentenced to a community order, and also when they are released back into the community after a custodial sentence.

The introductory section opens with a discussion on how terms such as paedophilia are constructed and viewed, and then looks at how government policy regarding sex offending has developed over recent years. Section two looks at issues concerned with risk management, questioning whether enough is being done to monitor the risk that high-risk offenders pose when released into society; whilst section three, on risk reduction covers the main methods of treatment, including sex offender treatment programmes, pharmacotherapy (chemical castration) and restorative and reintegration techniques.

Section Four focuses on specific offender groups; including female sexual offenders, sexual harm by youth, mentally disordered sexual offenders and intellectual disabled offenders. These assess in what ways these offenders are different to the 'norm' and look at how we should be dealing and treating these differences.

The final section looks at social and moral responsibilities, including the patterns, prevention and protection of cyber-sex offences and media constructions of and reactions to paedophilia. In the final chapter the concept of dignity is addressed and the balance between community protection and the rights of sex offenders involved is evaluated.

Contents:

PrefacePart 1: Introduction 1. Paedophilia: Definitions and Aetiology 2. High-risk Sex offenders: Issues of PolicyPart 2: Risk Management 3. Effective Multi-agency Public Protection: Learning from the Research 4. The Sex Offender Register, Community Notification and Some Reflections on PrivacyPart 3: Treatment and Risk Reduction 5. An Introduction to Sex Offender Treatment Programmes and their Risk Reduction Efficacy 6. The Use of Pharmacotherapy with High-risk Sex Offenders 7. Restorative Justice and the Reintegration of High-risk Sex OffendersPart 4: Special Offender Groups 8. Female Sexual Offenders: A Special Sub-group9. Enhancing Community Collaboration to Stop Sexual Harm by Youth 10. Mentally Disordered Sex Offenders 11. Intellectualy Disabled Sexual Offenders: Subgroup Profiling and Recidivism after Outpatient TreatmentPart 4: Social and Moral Responsibilities 12. Cyber-sex Offenders: Patterns, Prevention and Protection 13. Media Constructions of and Reactions to Paedophilia in Society 14. Dignity and Dangerousness: Sex Offenders and the Community - Human Rights in the Balance?