Sexual Crime

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 a collection of original contributions to the current literature on the role of the internet in understanding contemporary issues in sexual offending. The book explores the theoretical underpinnings of the effect of the internet on the development of sexual deviance, before looking at more applied topics including online sexual offending against children and sextortion. Contemporary topics such as image-based sexual abuse, dating app-facilitated violence, and groups referred to as ‘incels’ are also explored. The book is relevant to psychologists, criminologists, social workers and students, as well as practitioners and the general public.