The Dilemma of the Sexual Offender (American Series in Behavioral Science and Law, 1101,)

This book was born out of the pressure imposed on forensic experts by the new sexual predator laws and the dilemma they have created. These include how we conceptualize sexual offenders and their victimization, how to manage and control sex offender behavior, and how to resolve the conflict of forensic experts in the roles of both treatment providers and as agents of social control under the mandates of sex-offender specific laws. The book is a synthesis of the clinical research on the subject by a large number of scholars presented within the larger perspective of the problem itself, closer to the natural roots of human sexual behaviors and their historicity. The text charts a provocative, thoughtful, and necessary direction for interpreting and clarifying society’s response to sexual deviance. It offers a clear and cogent argument explaining how law and medicine can move beyond the present climate of moral panic guided by a discerning and deliberate approach to interpreting sexual offenders. Among topics covered are women in society, deviant sexuality, the reality of evil, rape and rapists, lust murderers, the relationship of mental illness to sexual offending, victims of sexual abuse and their victimizers, treatment, sex offender laws, and the logic of sex offender laws and policies. This book provides a useful and accessible primer for readers interested in such subjects as the role of women in society, the history of victimization, the relationship between mental illness and sexual offending, and the relevant laws on the subject. It serves as an outstanding resource for psychiatrists, lawyers, criminologists, policy analysts, and forensic mental health professionals as the authors expertly reveal the world of sexual offenders.