Sexual Offenders

Most explanations of child sexual abuse perpetration have been premised on assumptions of the individualist/monological paradigm. Child abuse prevention programs, including treatment for people known to pose a risk of sexual harm to children (sexual offenders), are also based on monological assumptions. Drawing from the case-study of a Catholic Priest who has sexually abused many children, this paper argues that Psychoanalytic Complexity Theory (PCT) offers a high-definition lens through which the phenomenon of child sexual abuse perpetration can be understood. PCT is consistent with more humane and better informed societal values about the human rights, dignity and worth of each unique person - regardless of whether they are the child-victim, perpetrator, guardian or bystander.

Übersicht: Das psychoanalytische Konzept der Perversion als psychopathologische Struktur ist nach wie vor aktuell, vor allem wenn man es mit der psychoanalytischen Theorie der Persönlichkeitsorganisation verbindet. Perversionen können einen relativ dissoziierten Platz im Rahmen einer neurotischen Persönlichkeitsorganisation einnehmen, sie können sich aber im Rahmen einer Borderline-Persönlichkeitsorganisation in mehr oder minder großem Ausmaß auf die gesamte Persönlichkeit ausdehnen, wodurch perverse Charakterzüge entstehen und die sexuellen Perversionen einen zunehmend malignen und zugleich ich-syntonen Charakter annehmen. Es wird vorgeschlagen, die Perversionen in benigne, transgressive und maligne Formen zu unterteilen, um den außerordentlich unterschiedlichen Implikationen verschiedener Perversionen für die sexuelle Selbstbestimmung anderer Menschen gerecht zu werden. Das Ausmaß, in dem die sexuelle Integrität anderer angegriffen wird, korreliert grob mit dem Ausmaß der Aggression, die unverdaut in die Persönlichkeit eingebaut ist, und damit mit dem Niveau der Persönlichkeitsorganisation. Anhand von zwei Fallbeispielen wird des weiteren versucht zu zeigen, daß die Unterscheidung zwischen benignen und malignen Perversionen sich auch in unterschiedlichen Entwicklungswegen der Übertragung zeigt. Je größer die prägenitale Aggression und je vorherrschender die primitiven Abwehrmechanismen, um so größer sind die paranoiden Ängste, die wiederum die psychopathische Übertragung zur Abwehr benützen.

The first book dedicated specifically to group therapy with adult sexual abusers.  This comprehensive guidebook and resource manual includes:
-- How to utilize the unique power of group relationships and group cohesion to achieve therapeutic growth for individual group members
-- Sound, practical guidelines for facilitating groups in the powerful mode of “group-centered” group therapy
-- includes dozens of case examples based on the authors’ many years of practice

Validität ist von zentraler Bedeutung im forensischen Kontext, da entscheidungsorientierte forensische Diagnostik weitreichende Auswirkungen sowohl auf die Probanden als auch die Gesellschaft im Allgemeinen hat. Selbstauskünfte als häufig genutzte  diagnostische Methode sind dabei jedoch als problematisch einzuschätzen. In Folge hat die Suche nach weniger durchschau- und verfälschbaren Messmethoden ein verstärktes Forschungsinteresse an sogenannten indirekten oder impliziten Messverfahren ausgelöst. Speziell im Bereich pädophiler sexueller Interessen (PSI) ist eine substanzielle Anzahl entsprechender Messparadigmen an forensischen Stichproben validiert worden. Im Vortrag wird ein kurzer Überblick über verschiedene indirekte Messverfahren von PSI gegeben mit dem Schwerpunkt, welche Verfahren sich als besonders robust herausgestellt haben. Neben einem Überblick über relevante Effektstärken erfolgt eine kurze Einführung in terminologische Unterscheidungen, methodische Überlegungen und implizite Annahmen über implizite Maße, die für die Konstrukt- und Kriteriumsvalidität bedeutsam sind. Hierbei werden sozial-kognitive Forschungsgrundlagen betont und Implikationen für die weitere Erforschung indirekter PSI-Messverfahren werden dargestellt.

Key Points
◦ Early theorists, especially those from a psychoanalytic background, saw firesetting arising out of sexual dysfunction. ◦ Some firesetters are sexually motivated and show sexual arousal to fire-related stimuli. ◦ While a subset firesetters do carry out later sexual offences and vice versa, research to-date does not support a direct relationship between the two behaviours. Rather both may share certain developmental risk
factors. ◦ Clinicians working with firesetting sexual offenders should examine the function served by the firesetting behaviour in formulating treatment needs. ◦Focused, large-scale, and systematic future research should examine the true extent of any relationship between firesetting and sexual dysfunction/offending.

Un agresor sexual es aquel que psicológicamente se muestra una personalidad heterogénea en el que puede mostrar motivaciones de diversa índole-no solo sexual-y en su gran mayoría buscan humillar y dominar a sus víctimas. Por lo que hace que la motivación se acorde a cada agresor sexual per se. No obstante, las motivaciones más reiteradas entre los distintos agresores se concentran en la impulsividad por deseo-en los cuales no suele ser visible una planificación-, oportunistas o instrumentales-divididas entre aquellas que son por satisfacción y las que, en cambio, son por justificación-. Por su parte, las instrumentales pueden contar con un rasgo planificador diferente a los anteriores buscando sentir poder y control. A sex offender who is psychologically a heterogeneous personality which can show such diverse motivations shown-not only sexual-and mostly seek to humiliate and dominate their victims. So it makes the motivation according to each sexual offender per se. However, the motivations most repeated between different aggressors focus on impulsivity by desire-in which not usually visible planning-opportunistic or instrumental-divided between those who are satisfied and that, instead, they are justification-. Meanwhile, instrumental planner may have a feature different from previous ones looking to feel power and control.

Abstract The development of sex offender residence restriction legislation was predicated on the assumption that sex offenders pose an increased risk to the public. The goal of such legislation was to create “sex-offender-free” zones in an effort to decrease sex offenders’ access to potential victims. Such legislation prohibits registered sex offenders from residing near landmarks where children are known to congregate. Empirical evidence thus far has failed to demonstrate that residing near these landmarks contributes to sex offenders’ ability to access victims, and may actually be doing more harm than good. The current study questions the rationale behind the implementation of residence restrictions and if this rationale is consistent with the realities of victim selection and sexual offending among incarcerated sex offenders. The sample consisted of 270 males incarcerated in a New Jersey correctional facility. The results demonstrate that most sex offenders resided within a 2,500-foot restricted landmark zone. However, after examining the methods sex offenders used and examining how far they traveled to meet or establish contact with their victims, residing near restricted landmarks did not contribute to victim selection. Of the 270 sex offenders, the offense patterns consistent with many residence restrictions were applicable to less than 1%.

Therapy can be confusing: two people converse in a private room, one in distress, the other described as a helpful expert. At least one of the two is likely to express thoughts and feelings usually kept secret. In other circumstances, the exchange of such intimacies may herald a more physical relationship. For therapists, however, the professional relationship explicitly precludes such contact. The BACP Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy,1 for example, requires that practitioners must not abuse their client’s trust in order to gain sexual, emotional, financial, or any other kind of personal advantage. Sexual relations with clients are prohibited, along with sexualised behaviour.

While psychotherapists and counsellors generally acknowledge that sexual attraction is a common and often ordinary human response to another, they also recognise that acting on such feelings in therapy will quickly become problematic. The early psychoanalytic community had to confront and respond to such instances as Jung’s relationship with Sabina Spielrein.2 Rosie Alexander’s3 description of the times she sat on her therapist’s knee and felt his erection, elicits a mixture of emotions in the reader, not least shock, and the narrative is saturated with a sense of betrayal.

There have been several types of research investigating boundary breaches and sexual boundary violations.4 In spite of these, however, there is little certainty about how common sexual boundary violations are, as the sources of information about them (confession, client reporting, complaints to organisations, and knowledge of colleagues’ conduct) are all vulnerable to error. Further studies have attempted to identify characteristics of transgressing therapists and the factors that contribute to such events (see Moggi et al5 for an example), and to understand the effects on clients who have experienced therapist-client sex.6 If sexual feelings are ubiquitous and sexual attraction a real possibility in the context of the therapy relationship, how are these managed in therapy? Complaints about sexual boundary violations form a small proportion of complaints about therapists and health professionals.4, 7, 8 Is it the prospect of opprobrium from colleagues or the threat of sanctions from regulatory agencies that contains the relationship within professional boundaries? Do reported violations represent only a small proportion of actual sexual boundary violations? .......

This study is an ethnography and sociological analysis of the apparatus developed in France since the 1990s to deal with the sexual offenders. It analyses especially the way justice and psychiatry have been articulated in this apparatus, either in prison or outside prison; how mental health workers developped practices and a "therapeutic ideology" to cope with some resistances to this collaboration; how it has been linked to a wide transformation in the way to deal with "abnormal sexuality"; and, eventually, it may illustrate the development of a new "speciality" at the intersection of psychiatry and criminology, who has its own institutions, its own references and practices.

In this article, we study the question raised by the care of the sex psychopaths between justice and psychiatry. We show the ambiguity of the so-called pathology to which this care is supposed to be directed: a pathology that is not a mental disease and that doesn’t produce any distress to the patient who doesn’t ask for any treatment. This ambiguity, coupled to the fact that this kind of treatment implies the cooperation of the medical staff with justice, explains why so many psychiatrists and psychologists don’t feel at ease with this kind of care. We eventually analyze two ways medical staff have to solve this tension: either they accept to develop a psycho-criminology which aims to reeducation and correction of deviant behaviors, or they try to convert all the resistances and obstacles they meet in their practice in the more familiar vocabulary of disease and care.

Este artículo plantea algunos de los problemas con que se enfrenta la metodología etnográfica en los entornos virtuales. Partiendo del concepto de "comunidad" como locus de trabajo de la etnografía, propongo que el proceso de la desterritorialización, evidente en el ciberespacio, no debe implicar un paradigma insuperable para la Antropología Social. Al contrario, este proceso puede conllevar una nueva territorialización virtual y, con ello, no solamente nuevos retos en la adaptación de las técnicas y métodos etnográficos a las comunidades virtuales, sino que también permitiría a la Antropología situarse en la vanguardia de la investigación de un mundo basado en las tecnologías digitales, que será la sociedad hegemónica en las próximas décadas.

La prise en charge des auteurs d'infraction à caractère sexuel rencontre des difficultés matérielles, tant en raison de la surcharge des centre médico-psychologiques de secteur, que de leurs difficultés d'accès à l'introspection. Créer un groupe de parole au sein d'une association socio-judiciaire permettra de libérer la parole, et d'encourager un travail de réflexion, et de recherche de sens sur le "pourquoi" et le "pour quoi".

Social scientific research on child sexual abuse (CSA) began in earnest in the late 1970s. Since that time, the scale of the challenges posed by CSA have only become more, rather than less, apparent. CSA remains prevalent, harmful and largely hidden from sight, and heterogeneous in form and impact, evolving in response to new technologies and offending opportunities. The majority of instances of sexual abuse are not detected at the time and the outcomes of those comparatively few cases subject to official investigation and adjudication are mixed. Relatively few perpetrators or victims of sexual abuse access treatment and there is limited public investment in primary prevention or early intervention efforts to reduce the risk of CSA. This aim of this chapter is to provide a succinct overview of extant social scientific research on CSA, emphasizing its prevalence, impacts, theories of offending, and the continuum of state responses, before identifying key areas for future research and theorizing.

Scholars are of differing views regarding the presumptions given under the POCSO Act. Some scholars have termed them draconian presumptions and some others have found them as essential for bringing the intent of the POCSO Act into action.

There are some previous laws also where similar presumptions were enacted by the legislature e.g. Section 31 in Domestic Violence Act. At the time of its enactment people wrote great articles pleading that the presumption under the Domestic Violence Act would not allow the law to world healthily. But the working of the Act for about one complete decade has shown the apprehension as unfounded.

Dr. PS Malik has evaluated the presumptions under the POCSO Act. Its all relevant facets and related tendencies of interpretations of law have been deeply studied to find a working way out of this law with the guiding lights of these presumptions given under Sections 29 and 30 of this Act.

The major aim of the current paper is to expand on the practice elements of the Good Lives Model-Comprehensive (GLM-C) of offender rehabilitation and to provide a detailed examination of its assessment and treatment implications. First we discuss the notion of rehabilitation and the qualities a good theory of rehabilitation should possess. Second, the principles, etiological assumptions, and general treatment implications of the GLM-C are briefly described. Third, we outline in considerable detail the application of this novel perspective to the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders. Finally, we conclude the paper with a summary of the major benefits we envisage the GLM-C bringing to the rehabilitation of sexual offenders.

The resilient and complex ways in which parents navigate the criminal justice system (CJS) after their children have sexually offended are largely undocumented in critical criminological literature. With relatively few notable exceptions across academic disciplines (Baker et al. 2003; Gervais and Romano 2018; Hackett et al. 2014; Levenson and Tewksbury 2009; Pollack 2017, Romano and Gervais 2018; Tewksbury and Levenson 2009; Thornton et al. 2008; Worley, Church, and Clemmons 2011), research is limited with regard to understanding parents’ involvement in their child’s rehabilitation, their deep concerns for the victims’ rights and recovery, and their various ways of coping with stigma, isolation, and challenging emotions in the aftermath of their child’s sexual offending behaviour (Gervais and Romano 2018; Romano and Gervais 2018).

Based on an interdisciplinary study involving criminological and psychological analyses of children’s rights, this chapter offers a counterpoint to some of these limitations. We demonstrate how ten families of youth who sexually offended negotiated various obstacles as they sought to prioritize inclusion and security throughout the accountability processes following their child’s sexual offending. In line with critical criminological literature that recognizes how people who sexually offend and their families are often excluded from society and the rehabilitation process (Petrunik and Deutschmann 2008; Viki et al. 2012), we further explore how the parents in our study were met with overwhelming institutional exclusionary practices despite some individual CJS workers’ attempts to be more considerate of their children’s rehabilitation and reintegration needs and rights. To do so, we review the historical and recent scholarship on adult and youth sexual offending that steers many institutional responses to sexual violence. We then reveal two overarching themes that emerged from the family narratives: CJS-based exclusion , and police and parental advocacy. Finally, we conclude this chapter by offering policy recommendations that advance knowledge about parents’ successes and struggles in mitigating the detrimental effects of exclusion and insecurity in the context of youth sexual offending.

MERGING IS SEX OBVIOUSLY,  NORMAL MERGING IS KNOWING THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF BOTH BEINGS, NO YOU OR I = ONENESS,  THE TWO ANUs MERGE – IF ONE IS AN ATTACK, THEN THE ORIGINAL ANU BECOMES SMALLER, DUMBER AND WEAKER, WHICH IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. 

AND - OUR "REALITY" UNMASKED

Sexual offending is seen as a deeply emotive and gripping crime which can have a profound, long lasting impact on the victim, as well as wider society, which is committed by both male and female offenders. The problem to be addressed within this study is the ‘unknown’ or ‘invisible’ female sex offender by showing that they are not an unnatural or uncommon concept which the media and sex crime literature often appear to suggest as they predominantly focus on the male offender. Furthermore, the study aims to explore whether the media present male and female sex offenders differently through a case study analysis of news articles on two male and two female sex offenders. The results showed that there is a gendered difference in the news media’s portrayal of sex offenders. The results of this study suggest that outdated gender-role expectations influence these portrayals; making sexual offending by a male perpetrator acceptable and vilifying female sexual offending. This is because we inhabit a patriarchal society dominated by hegemonic masculinity.

The alarm raised by some crimes and the dramatic harms they can cause brought some legislators to conceive medical treatment as a possible way to prevent re-offending. In Italy the so-called security measures are characterized by clinical and therapeutic contents. The laws of some of the United States of America authorize the castration of sex offenders in order to reduce recidivism. But are such measures consistent with the general principles and safeguards of criminal law? Do they respect individual rights and liberties protected by national Constitutions? Are they meant to help the offender or are they a new form of corporal punishment?
This paper considers such issues in a problematic perspective, not necessarily to offer definitive answers, but especially to stimulate a careful meditation on what could be the future content of criminal sanctions.

Sexual offenders against children are generally inadequate in their social functioning and diverse in their psychopathology. The degree to which this inadequate functioning and psychopathology influences therapeutic interventions brings into question the belief that generic non clinical programmatic treatment work is always appropriate for such a cohort. The Sex Offenders Assessment Package (SOAP) measures inadequate social functioning and sexual deviance, but has not been linked to broader individual differences and generic psychopathology. We collected information examining the relationship between the SOAP and standard measures of personality (the NEO-FFI) and obsessive-compulsiveness (MOCI) in a sample of 200 sexual offenders against children seen by the Probation Service. Factor analysis was used to reduce the SOAP to three reliable factors: emotional distress, cognitions supporting sex with children, and concern for others. These factors correlated respectively with higher Neuroticism and lower Extroversion; greater obsessive-compulsiveness on the MOCI, and trait Agreeableness, irrespective of whether or not one corrected for socially desirable responding. When partial correlation controlled for the influence of Neuroticism on the correlation between cognitions supporting sex with children and the MOCI, there was no change in the association between these variables. These results show that negative affect and obsessional tendencies are important underlying influences on the feelings and behavior of sexual offenders, that the obsessionality of the group is not attributable to Neuroticism, and suggest useful additional foci to enhance the treatment of this diverse clinical group.

Las imágenes con niños consideradas pornográficas y que son intercambiadas y comercializadas en Internet constituyen el objeto del consumo erótico de una importante y clandestina minoría sexual, la generalmente conocida como pedofilia. La peculiaridad altamente estigmatizada de esta atracción sexual provocó que, hasta hace pocos años, con la expansión de la red mundial, los adultos atraídos sexualmente por niños vivieran su sexualidad aislados de otros semejantes, sin considerar la reivindicación activa del sexo integeneracional mediante la creación de comunidades con intereses compartidos. Sin embargo, con la llegada de la cibersociedad, donde las comunidades y redes virtuales garantizan el anonimato y el intercambio generalizado de información, se han logrado movilizar sexualizades estigmatizadas hasta el punto de lanzar esta minoría sexual a una fase de agresiva movilización clandestina. En este artículo, mediante el análisis de imágenes pornográficas, se interpreta el imaginario erótico pedofílico que comparten los miembros de estas comunidades virtuales así como la relación que guarda este imaginario con las representaciones de la sexualidad y el erotismo en la sociedad contemporánea.

Este artículo plantea algunos de los problemas con que se enfrenta la metodología etnográfica en los entornos virtuales. Partiendo del concepto de "comunidad" como locus de trabajo de la etnografía, propongo que el proceso de la desterritorialización, evidente en el ciberespacio, no debe implicar un paradigma insuperable para la Antropología Social. Al contrario, este proceso puede conllevar una nueva territorialización virtual y, con ello, no solamente nuevos retos en la adaptación de las técnicas y métodos etnográficos a las comunidades virtuales, sino que también permitiría a la Antropología situarse en la vanguardia de la investigación de un mundo basado en las tecnologías digitales, que será la sociedad hegemónica en las próximas décadas.

Scholars have long noted the role of the media in the sexualization of children and adolescents. However, with the advent of new media technologies such as the internet and cellular phones, children and adolescents are no longer merely consumers of this sexual ideology, but also creators of digital content that performs this ideology. Such content can range from the relatively tame “girls making out” images found on sites such as collegehumor.com to sexually explicit photographs transmitted through cellular phones within a circle of friends that draws the attention of law enforcement. In this essay, I discuss the practice of adolescent sexting (the practice of sending sexually explicit text messages) by reviewing some of the more prominent cases covered in the media; next, I explore the legal aspects surrounding the practice of sexting; finally, I consider the ethical issues surrounding sexting, exploring the issue of harm to both the individual and society by rooting the practice within a culture that celebrates, yet remains suspicious of, adolescent sexuality.

The U.S. military rate of sexual assault continues unabated, in spite of the efforts of advocate groups, Senators, Representatives and others to direct and implement policy change. Through a qualitative analysis, including an analysis of policy, DoD data, and prior research papers, this paper examines culture as a bedrock of military sexual assault and posits that without an honest and deep cultural shift, policies alone will not suffice in reducing military sexual harassment, assault, and rape.

Sexual violence remains a pervasive and persistent social problem. In 1996, Congress enacted Megan’s Law, dictating mandatory community notification and potential civil commitment for those deemed by the State to be dangerous sexual offenders. In 2013, Megan’s Law continues to influence the treatment of sexual offenders under law and the social construction of a highly publicized, yet statistically rare, sexual crime – the rape and murder of a young female child by a depraved male stranger. This influence highlights the extent to which this personalized crime bill shapes the social construction of sexual violence in terms of sex and gender systems. This paper examines how sex and gender shape media discourses of the sexual offender and victim that are mobilized in the legislative debate on Megan’s Law. Drawing on theoretical ideas from cultural studies and feminist legal scholarship, we employ discourse analysis to analyze the legislative debate on Megan’s Law. We find that high-profile media images of sex offenders and victims are relied on to construct a singular image of sexual violence, whereby a child is victimized by an adult sexual predator. These images draw on traditional, conservative notions of gender and sexuality.

En 2008, je pensais vraiment que la prise en compte de la parole des victimes de viols évoluerait positivement en la faveur de leur écoute et de la prise en charge de leurs souffrances. Près de 10 ans après, je constate qu'il n'en est rien. Bien peu de moyens sont mis au service de ces victimes. Si différents faits d’actualité semblent montrer que la parole des victimes se libère, elle se libère aussi du côté des prédateurs. Remarquons cependant que ce sont des personnalités du spectacle, des vedettes de cinéma qui témoignent des viols et agressions qu’elles ont subi et qui lancent des campagnes d’alerte. Les victimes anonymes continuent de subir la double offense, après le viol, les humiliations que la police et la justice leur présentent comme seul salut.
Le déni sur la culture du viol fait partie des armes que le patriarcat utilise pour maintenir le féminin, la femme et son enfant sous la terreur

Fueled by a "moral panic" that evolved through the 1990s and into the mid-2000s, the war on "sex offenders" paralleled the war on drugs and was slated to eventually replace it as the drug war seemed to wane in popularity and success.  With the exception of property crimes and illegal immigrants, sex offense crimes have now become the fasted growing felony category entering the American prison system.

Granted, these are individuals who may have used poor judgment, who may have broken societal laws, and who certainly require redirection and rehabilitation, but like any human being, they do not deserve the criminal punishment and reprisals that include a lifetime of prison followed by societal castigation and abuse.  Like any addictive condition, the proclivity or preoccupation with fantasy crimes, even the most distasteful, qualify as a behavioral condition first and should be treated as such.

In der internationalen forensischen Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie gibt es seit Anfang der 1990er Jahre eine zunehmend lebendige Forschungsdynamik, die im wesentlichen davon gespeist wird, dass sich der gesellschaftliche Umgang mit Sexualdelikten verändert. In vielen Ländern waren von den Medien reißerisch aufgemachte Rückfallsdelikte von bereits vorbestraften Sexualstraftätern der Anlass, dass die Strafvollzugsbehörden eine rapide zunehmende Nachfrage nach psychiatrischem und psychotherapeutischem Know How im Umgang mit gefährlichen Straftätern entwickelten. Dieser vergleichsweise neuen Entwicklung sollte sich auch die Psychoanalyse stellen, indem sie ihr Wissen über die Behandlung von Delinquenz und Perversion systematisiert und weiterentwickelt. Die vorliegende Arbeit versteht sich in diesem Zusammenhang. Es wird ein Denkmodell vorgestellt, das die Psychodynamik des Sexualdelinquenten in den Kontext einer allgemeinen psychoanalytischen Perversionstheorie und darüber hinaus in den weiteren Kontext eines psychoanalytischen Verständnisses früher Störungen einordnet. Diese konzeptuellen Überlegungen sollen mit zwei Falldarstellungen illustriert werden, in denen auch die unterschiedliche Übertragungsdynamik bei delinquenten und nicht-delinquenten Perversen deutlich werden soll.

Background: Research evidence on unprofessional relationships across the caring professionsc onsiders a range of activities and definitions (Halter, Brown & Stone, 2007). The evidence on sexual boundary violations (SBVs) in psychological therapy is sparse, but suggests that SBVs are under-reported; there is also a small but significant component of complaints. Conversely an increasing literature exploring client experience of SBV suggests that the effects are profound (Ben-Ari & Somer, 2004; Somer & Nachmanil, 2005). The prevalence literature is primarily quantitative, often using survey methodology. Conclusions have limited accuracy; there are issues raised, for example, when considering recruitment and sample characteristics, response rates, and questionsand definitions used. Some studies identified general characteristics associated with SBVs, including middle age, being male, working alone and outside the public sector; more recent literature, however, has been critical of the notion of the 'bad apple'. Halter, Brown and Stone (2007) conclude that provision of information is insufficient; evidence for the effect of recent innovations in training is promising, but evaluation of these is necessarily limited. It is unlikely, however, that UK accredited practitioners are ignorant of the code of ethics to which they have signed up; other reasons are more likely to play a part in sexual boundary violations.

Research Aims and Questions: The aims of the current research were to (1) Identify the indicators that signal potential or actual sexual boundaryviolations by healthcare providers who are relevant to the remit of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy; (2) Explore how practitioners manage these in their therapy work and the effects of such management strategies; (3) Make detailed recommendations to minimise risk of sexual boundaryviolations by such healthcare providers.

Methodology: Thirteen practitioners were interviewed about their experiences of managing the risk of sexual boundary violations. Inclusion criteria were: accreditation as a counsellor or psychotherapist within specified counselling or psychotherapy organisations; a preparedness to confirm that he or she had not committed, or been subject to an investigation concerning, a sexual boundary violation; extensive experience of clinical work since qualifying, some of this being outside the NHS. To maximise the potential variety in participants and accounts, participation was invited through advertising and electronic distribution lists. The sample was completed through purposive sampling; to ensure that the sample varied sufficiently in terms of sex, disclosed hetero or homo-sexual orientation, age, cultural background, experience and time since qualified, working environments, therapy models, registering body and geographical location, four participants were identified through personal and professional contacts. The sample therefore included individuals from both higher and lower risk categories. Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit therapist experiences. The focus was on gaining detailed accounts of boundary breaches and potential SBVs, on reactions,choices and strategies adopted by practitioners, and opinions and judgements. Data were analysed thematically (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Braun & Clarke, 2000), each interview analysed initially by pairs consisting of an academic and a clinician. Principles of Free Association Narrative (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000) were employed when extending the analysis beyond the participan's opinions and explicit themes, using the interviewer's experience to understand the complexities of the constructed account.

Findings: Participants described SBV as one extreme on a continuum of boundary breaches; many accounts focussed on recognition and management of small breaches. Experiences of sexual attraction originating from client and therapist were seen as ubiquitous and unavoidable, and occurred without reference to sex of therapist and client, or sexual orientation; the management of the experience was seen as critical in determining whether a serious breach had taken place. Definitions of breaches and boundary violations varied, especially in views on touch. The key factor identified in definitions of boundary breaches concerned motive, i.e. whether the practitioner was acting in their own interests rather than for the client's benefit. For some, boundaries and their management, including sexual boundaries, were integral to therapeutic work. Elements of the steps involved in the therapeutic management of boundaries were developed into a process model created through analysis of what seemed to work positively for therapists and clients. The model articulates the following process: (1) noting; (2) facing up to it personally; (3) reflecting; (4) processing; (5) formulating; (6) working for therapeutic benefit. This model represents an ideal; therapists viewed the process as an ongoing struggle. Practitioners described a tension between engagement and sense making; we came to view this as a participant/observerstance, with similarities to Celenza's (1995) definition of empathy. Some accounts of managing boundaries were deemed problematic, even though they were not descriptions of sexual boundary violations, by participant or research team; for example, the strategies adopted for managing pressure on therapeutic boundaries sometimes resulted in distress to clients and difficulties with therapeutic work. These were grouped into a typology of four categories: self-protective/defensive; moralising/omnipotent; neediness/over-identification, and over-protective anxiety. A feature of all examples was a difficulty in maintaining a constructive balance between participation and observation. Supervision was seen as the primary source of support for successfully managing boundaries; we focussed on experiences of supervision and views of its functions. Supervisors were expected to focus on client benefit, manage the supervisory relationship, facilitate understanding, and an ethical and therapeutic stance. These mirror the practitioner's roles, so that supervisors might support therapist work at any point. One of the major aims of supervision seemed to be the development of an internal supervisor (Casement, 1985). Additionally, supervisors were expected toprovide quality checks, monitoring the therapist's account and their own experience, speaking of difficulties, so that threats of boundary breaches could be discussed. This extended for some to a responsibility to report serious unprofessional misconduct.

Conclusions and Recommendations: These findings are not inconsistent with the literature and research on sexual boundary violation, victims and transgressors, even though participants had avoided sexual boundary violations and had experience of successfully managing boundary threats. The sample tended to favour more conservative stances towards boundary limits such as touch; this may have been a protective factor. Recommendations for practice have been framed as issues for reflection for practitioners, supervisors, employing organisations, accrediting bodies, and training organisations. These include: increasing clarity over reporting; support during investigation; training in boundary management; supervisor contracting; formulation of practitioner learning needs; for practitioners to develop and own a rationale for therapeutic boundaries and prohibitions. There are finally suggestions for future research.

The Internet has changed how humans get information and interact with one another. While it provides huge benefits it also poses great dangers if it is abused. This essay looks at the growing amount and type of pornography on the Internet as well as the affect that it has on individuals. We see how offenders use websites to reinforce their beliefs and exchange material and information with other offenders. A brief overview of the practical use of websites and tools by offenders to avoid detection is also given as well as law enforcement efforts to combat them. We examine the use of virtual child pornography and the dangers of exhibitionism. Finally, an account is given of the typical grooming process a child sex offender uses to lure a child into an attack.

ABSTRACT
This article critically assesses the legal issues surrounding the contemporary act of adolescent sexting via the philosophical methodology of ontology. Through this methodology the article aims to highlight the significance of the mobile phone, and the social objects which it produces in the world, pertaining to the act of sexting. Highlighting this device’s abilities, uses, and present-day ubiquity offers an alternate insight to both the current legislative parameters and legal commentary on sexting. This is because neither the law governing sexting, nor the majority of the legal commentary on this act, has engaged with the presence of the mobile phone in our contemporary world and the way it has revolutionised our lives. In order to offer an alternative lens through which to view this act, the article draws on the deconstructive work of Jacques Derrida and the new realist ontology of Maurizio Ferraris, to offer comment on how and why digital writing must be reckoned with in the twenty-first century. Using these theorists, and others, the article illustrates the importance of the mobile phone and how its role as the quintessential writing machine of the third millennium must be recognised in order to correctly legislate the act of adolescent sexting.

KEYWORDS: Sexting, mobile phones, Derrida, Ferraris, social ontology

This study examines the predictive validity of the Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI) on a sample of sexual offenders extracted from a large cohort of offenders and compares predictive validities with nonsexual offenders from the same cohort. The LS/CMI predicted sex offenders' general recidivism, which occurred at a rate of 44.1%, with about the same accuracy as less frequently occurring violent (12.34%) and sexual recidivism (3.73%; AUC = .77, .74, and .74, respectively) and with nonsexual offenders. The study revealed that allowing assessors to override the numerically derived risk level with their professional judgment, a practice that increased risk level much more often than it decreased it, reduced the predictive validity of the scale and did so particularly for sex offenders by increasing risk excessively. An exploration of factors related to these adjustments revealed that non-risk-related characteristics were used in judgments to modify risk ratings. Implications for policy and practice are considered.

Despite being over 15 years old researchers have been slow to adopt the competency or expertise perspective advocated by Ward (1999) as a complimentary viewpoint to the dominant deficit model of sexual offending. A growing body of research on the behavioral and cognitive impact of expertise suggests that it is timely to revisit the question of whether individuals can become expert at rape. This review summarizes the key points in Ward’s theory and evaluates the scant research that could lend it support. The expertise perspective is a fertile area for future research and may provide a mechanism for explaining the relationship between explicit and implicit measures of distorted cognition. The review makes suggestions for future research and appraises the clinical implications of considering sexual aggressors as novices or experts.