1st Edition

Managing High Risk Sex Offenders in the Community Risk Management, Treatment and Social Responsibility

By Karen Harrison Copyright 2010
    336 Pages
    by Willan

    336 Pages
    by Willan

    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.

    Preface, Karen Harrison  Part I: Introduction  1. Paedophilia: definitions and aetiology, Karen Harrison, Kieran McCartan and Rachel Manning  2. High-risk sex offenders: issues of policy, Mark Farmer and Ruth Mann  Part II: Risk Management  3. Effective multi-agency public protection: learning from the research, Jason Wood and Hazel Kemshall  4. The sex offender register, community notification and some reflections on privacy, Terry Thomas  Part III: Treatment and Risk Reduction  5. An introduction to sex offender treatment programmes and their risk reduction efficacy, Sarah Brown  6. The use of pharmacotherapy with high-risk sex offenders, Karen Harrison  7. Restorative justice and the reintegration of high-risk sex offenders, Anne-Marie McAlinden  Part IV: Special Offender Groups  8. Female sexual offenders: a special sub-group, Franca Cortoni  9. Enhancing community collaboration to stop sexual harm by youth, Joann Schladale  10. Mentally disordered sex offenders, Brad Booth  11. Intellectualy disabled sexual offenders: subgroup profiling and recidivism after outpatient treatment, Joan van Horn, Jules Mulder and Ine Kusters  Part V: Social and Moral Responsibilities  12. Cyber-sex offenders: patterns, prevention and protection, Majid Yar  13. Media constructions of and reactions to paedophilia in society, Kieran Mc Cartan  14. Dignity and dangerousness: sex offenders and the community - human rights in the balance? Bernadette Rainey

    Biography

    Karen Harrison is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Hull.

    'Karen Harrison, the editor, closes the preface with this comment: "whether he overall aim (to identify methods to prevent further sexual victimization) has been achieved is for the reader to assess". According to this humble reader, this aim is fully achieved if, and only if, professionals consider the conclusions reached by the authors. This is an extraordinary book that truly opens the eyes. All professionals wanting to really understand paedophilia should consider this book compulsory reading. It not only includes difficult theoretical questions but also raises practical challenges which must be taken into consideration when researching and in practice.'Olga Sanchez De Ribera, PhD Student, Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge in the Howard Journal Vol 49 No 5. December 2010