Abstract
This is an excellent book and will be immensely valuable to readers from many different professional backgrounds, most particularly for professionals involved with sex offenders, but also for a wide range of clinicians, researchers and students. The focus is predominantly on young sex offenders and perhaps the book would be more accurately titled Youth Sexual Aggression. Given, however, that so much of the problem of sexual aggression begins in the adolescent years, it is an invaluable book for anybody interested in the subject of sexual aggression.
There are a number of contributing authors with the editor presenting two of the chapters. The chapters include a comprehensive review of definitions and origins of sexual aggression. This is an excellent overview of the subject and provides an interesting and very topical analysis of the role of the media in contemporary culture and, more specifically, in propagating images of violence.
There is a developmental account of the genesis of sexual problems which is not only descriptive but also provides an excellent clinical typology and deals also with aspects of treatment.
‘Sexual aggression within the family’ is a necessary and comprehensive account of intrafamilial sexual abuse. Again the book not only describes origins and typologies but also deals with treatment. ‘Sexual victimisation of children’ presents a psychobiological and neurobiological account of the long-term outcomes of this sort of trauma in children, with a very useful analysis of the family dynamics that are involved.
A chapter on transcultural issues presents the differences in ethnic groups and various cultures and their attitudes towards sexual offences.
The chapter dealing with male adolescent sex offenders again provides an excellent overview of psychosocial factors and a presentation of treatment approaches as well. A very interesting chapter is the one on female sex offenders. Data are presented which suggest that female offenders are not as small a group as is generally thought.
The chapter on treatment perspectives was extremely comprehensive, covering the full range of interventions, from psychodynamic to behavioural to pharmacological. There is also an excellent chapter on issues of assessment, followed by one on cognitive behavioural treatment strategies and finally a review of psychopharmacological interventions.
The book is extremely comprehensive and presents a truly biopsychosocial approach. It will be an invaluable source text for anyone interested in this area. A must-buy!