Sexual Crime

This book focuses on the experience of imprisonment from the perspectives of individuals with sexual convictions. It stresses the importance of a positive and rehabilitative prison climate. The volume begins with an exploration of the theoretical underpinnings of a rehabilitative prison climate and discusses some of the practical ways of creating rehabilitative cultures in prisons housing people convicted of sexual offences. Four empirical chapters focus on the experience of stigmatisation, prison officers’ attitudes towards prisoners’ offences, negotiating the ‘sex offender’ identity in prisons and the varied experience of ‘being’ in prisons exclusively for individuals with sexual convictions. Throughout the authors discuss the specific benefits of peer-support, such as the chance to earn self-forgiveness, construct adaptive identities and consequently move away from harmful labels. The book also spotlights a chapter on the experience of imprisonment written by a former service-user, this unique position offers an insightful account of an individual’s journey through the prison system.

This book explores the growing understanding and evidence base for the role of trauma in sexual offending. It represents a paradigm shift, in which trauma is becoming an important risk factor to be considered in the treatment of individuals convicted of sexual crime. The authors consider the theoretical and historical explanations and understandings of sexual offending and its relationship with early trauma, paving the way for a volume which considers client’s treatment needs through a new, trauma-informed lens. The experiences and challenges of specific groups are also explored, including young people and women. Readable, yet firmly anchored in a sound evidence base, this book is relevant to psychologists, therapists, criminologists, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, social workers, students, and to practitioners and the general public with an interest in learning more about the topic.

This book explores sexual crime and intellectual functioning. Drawing on expertise from clinical practice and applied research, the volume begins with an exploration of the theoretical and historical background to the interest in links between sexual offending and intellectual functioning. The authors then move on to discuss assessment of intellectual functioning in prison, interventions for low intellectual functioning, autistic spectrum and personality disorder. This book offers a rare insight into the phenomenon of high IQ and sexual offending, a much neglected aspect of the sexual crime literature, and includes novel research that unpacks this link. It further offers an extraordinary insight into the experiences of a person of superior IQ in the criminal justice system for a sexual offence. 

The book is relevant not only to psychologists, criminologists, social workers and students, but also to practitioners, researchers and the general public with an interest in learning about sexual offending and intellectual functioning.

This book offers a collection of original contributions to the literature on sexual crime, religion and spirituality. Does religion help people desist from sexual crime? Can it form the basis of interventions to rehabilitate people? Or does it provide justification and opportunity for committing it? What do the perpetrators say about their faith? What about the victims and survivors of sexual crime? The book asks and answers these questions and more in a unique collection of chapters – from academics, chaplains and prisoners. 

The book begins with an exploration of the role, history and development of chaplaincy in the prison system over the years, before providing a more personal look through the eyes of the Lead Chaplain at Rampton High Secure hospital in the UK. Subsequent chapters  weave together theories of desistance from sexual crime, and analyses of perpetrators’ accounts of their offending are also offered, alongside firsthand accounts of prisoners from a range of religions. The book concludes with a thoughtful journey through the book by the Lead Chaplain at HMP Stafford, UK. It will provide fresh insights for students and scholars of psychology, criminology, theology and social work, as well as for practitioners, chaplains, and readers with an interest in learning about sexual crime, religion and spirituality.

This book offers an original contribution drawing together literature, research, practitioner and service user perspectives around the victimology of sexual crime and offending. Texts about sexual crime focus on the perpetration of sexual crime. This is important as, if we know how, why and in what situations  people commit abuse, it will help us prevent further suffering. However, it is important that the voices of people who have experienced sexual abuse are heard and understood, as there is much we can learn from them -  not simply about their experiences but improving our knowledge of victimisation also informs how we prevent sexual crime.