Sex Offenders: Punish Help Change or Control?

<p>Sex offending and in particular child sex offending is a complex area for policy makers theorists and practitioners. A focus on punishment has reinforced sex offending as a problem that is essentially ‘other’ to society and discourages engagement with the real scale and scope of sexual offending in the UK. This book looks at the growth of work with sex offenders questioning assumptions about the range and types of such offenders and what effective responses to these might be. </p><p>Divided into four sections this book sets out the growth of a broad legislative context and the emergence of child sexual offenders in criminal justice policy and practice. It goes on to consider a range of offences and victim typologies arguing that work with offenders and victims is complex and can provide a rich source of theoretical and practical knowledge that should be utilised more fully by both policy makers and practitioners. It includes work on female sex offenders electronic monitoring and animal abuse as well as exploring interventions with sex offenders in three different contexts; prisons communities and hostels.</p><p>Bringing together academic practice and policy experts the book argues that a clear but complex theoretical and policy approach is required if the risk of re- offending and further victimisation is to be reduced. Ultimately this book questions whether it makes sense to locate responsibility for responding to sexual offending solely within the criminal justice domain.</p>