FUTURE-DIRECTIONS IN THE ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS

Sexual offences against women and children constitute a serious and di stressingly prevalent social problem. The psychological and emotional costs to victims and their families, the high reoffending rates of som e types of offenders, and the financial costs of incarceration all hig hlight the urgent need for effective research and treatment of this pr oblem behaviour. In the past two decades, a number of innovations have led to improved treatment of these difficult men. In addition, theori es and models have been developed with the aim of furthering our under standing of sex offenders. In this paper we identify a number of issue s within the broad areas of assessment and treatment that we believe t o be problematic, and make some suggestions about ways of resolving th ese problems in the future.