Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders: A Handbook by A.R. Beech, L.A. Craig, and K.D. Browne(Eds.).

Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell ( 2009 ) 609pp. £34.99pb ISBN 978-0-470-01899-6 Written within the public protection and risk management approach, this edited text is a useful contribution to the literature on current and emerging methods in the clinical practice of classification, assessment and psychological treatment of sex offenders. The contributors are predominantly drawn from the UK, Canada and the USA, from a range of respected and experienced academics and practitioners. This allows the text to draw upon good practice and the experiences of pioneering work from across these jurisdictions. The Handbook is structured around four main sections: approaches to assessment; assessment with specific sex offender populations; interventions; and interventions with specific sex offender populations. Within this structure each chapter author describes their topic and considers both the research evidence and any contentious issues of significance. As, perhaps, to be expected, this work does not situate sex offenders within a broader social context. Rather, the paradigm adopted is the narrower clinical perspective of the individual pathology of the offender. As a consequence, there is no consideration of issues such as how sex offenders experience assessment and treatment or a critique on the theoretical basis of assessment. The last section of the book, however, moves away from the earlier structure on mechanisms, methods and effectiveness of assessment and treatment to include issues on what is termed ‘Policy and Practice’. This section focuses on the use of assessment or treatment interventions within non-clinical settings and the relationship of assessment to interventions other than treatment. The issues discussed are not often considered in this context and, thus, are a particularly interesting and unusual dimension to the book. However, on reading this section, it feels as though an opportunity to address this lack of earlier work has been missed. For example, the two chapters on police work and management of sex offenders through multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) are important areas in which the role and implications of assessment have been previously neglected in favour of describing the risk assessment system, but unfortunately the issues are not drawn out in depth here. The text has a number of strengths which distinguishes it from the rapidly growing corpus in this field. The most notable of these is the emphasis on applying the general techniques and concepts of assessment and treatment to specific sex offender populations. This includes groups that are often neglected such as female and juvenile sex offenders, as well as sex offenders with learning difficulties and/or mental health problems. A further strength is the discussion of the utility and evidenced efficacy on comparatively new measures used in England and Wales, such as the penile plethysmograph and polygraph. Such discussions are essential given current trends in penal policy and practice with sex offenders. For those practitioners, academics and students who are interested in the assessment and treatment of sex offenders this Handbook is a significant addition to the literature and should be placed within easy reach on the bookshelf.

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