Classifying child abusers: Its relevance to theory and clinical practice

A major problem in the development of an adequate theory of the sexual offe nce process is the heterogeneity of offenders. This lack of a clear underst anding of both why and how people sexually offend against children continue s to hinder the development of effective methods of intervention for these individuals. The aim of this article is to critically review some of the ap proaches that have been adopted in an attempt to provide a reliable and val id classification system for child molesters and to consider the impact tha t such systems have had on the structuring of interventions to meet the dif fering needs of this client group.