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Purpose – This chapter explores claims of social problem workers in criminal justice and mental health with regard to how to manage males who are identified as or self-identify as both victims and perpetrators (V/Ps) of sexual abuse. We also examine the claims of V/Ps with regard to how they manage their dual status.

Methodology – This chapter is based on an action research project on intervention services for V/Ps in Ontario, Canada. Our data include literature reviews, interviews with intervention professionals, V/P narratives, and a transcription of a stake-holder's workshop.

Findings – Intervention workers whose mandate is offender risk management state they give little attention to victimization-related issues of V/Ps, whereas workers in victims’ services often state that adult V/Ps are not covered under their mandate. This suggests that the status of offender is the master status for adult V/Ps. Our V/P narratives recount efforts at self-management and some V/Ps and intervention professionals have expressed interest in the possibility of developing programs specially designed for V/Ps.

Practical Implications – An examination of issues related to the dual status of sexual abuse V/Ps suggests that V/Ps may require special services that cannot be provided by existing programs for perpetrators and victims.

Originality/Value of Paper – Studies of social problem work might benefit from considering not only professionals’ viewpoints but also those of their clients. This chapter explores new intervention models (GLM and RJ) that incorporate ethical concerns based on a rights perspective (“moral repair”) and the experiential concerns of V/Ps.

This paper aims to provide a critical review of the psychopathy literature, with a particular focus on recent research examining the relationship between psychopathy and various forms of criminal behaviour.

The authors provide an overview of the studies conducted to date. To identify relevant published studies for this review, literature searches were completed using Web of Science, Scopus, PsychINFO, and PubMed.

Substantial empirical research exists to suggest that psychopathy is a robust predictor of criminal behaviour and recidivism. Furthermore, considerable support for the assertion that the violence perpetrated by psychopathic offenders is more instrumental than the violence committed by other offenders was found. In addition, some research suggests that the greater use of instrumental violence among psychopathic offenders may be due to the interpersonal/affective traits of psychopathy, and not the impulsive/antisocial traits.

The current paper is the first to provide an in‐depth review of the literature examining the association between psychopathy and criminal offending with a particular focus on violent and homicidal behaviour.

Sex offenders who refuse a place on a sex offender treatment programme are estimated to make up about half the prison sex offender population in England and Wales. It is important to motivate refusers to participate in treatment to reduce the likelihood of their re‐offending. In this pilot study we used the Personal Concerns Inventory‐Offender Adaptation (PCI‐OA), a semi‐structured motivational assessment, further adapting it for treatment refusers. We examined the effectiveness of the PCI‐OA (TR) with nine prisoners who had refused sex offender treatment (the treatment group) compared with nine refusers who received no intervention (the control group). The treatment group were at least 0.6 times as likely to show a positive motivational shift towards sex offender treatment as the untreated group. The practice implications of these results are discussed, and further evaluation of the PCI‐OA (TR) is recommended.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ability of a comprehensive set of covariates to distinguish and predict juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) from non-sexual juvenile offenders (NSJOs) using demographic traits, criminality covariates, childhood trauma, and psychopathologies in a sample of male and female juvenile offenders in the USA.

A multivariate binary logistic regression will be conducted on a total of 64,329 juvenile offenders in Florida to determine what demographic, criminal history, childhood traumas, and psychopathologies make a difference in identifying sexual and NSJOs while controlling for the other key predictors in the model.

Results indicate that having an earlier age of criminal onset and more felony arrests, experiencing sexual abuse or being male, having low empathy, high impulsivity, depression, and psychosis all significantly increase the risk of sexual vs non-sexual offending among the male and female juvenile offenders, even while controlling for all other key covariates in the analysis.

This study uncovered many new findings regarding the key distinguishing traits of juvenile sex offending vs non-sexual offending, using a comprehensive list of predictors, a large sample of male and female offenders, and a rigorous statistical methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of a variety of developmental factors on sexual homicide offenders (SHOs), while taking into account other components of sexual homicide theoretical models.

A series of logistic regression models are performed using a total of 616 incarcerated adult male sexual offenders from Canada to distinguish between three groups of sexual offenders, SHOs, violent non-homicidal sex offenders (NHSOs) and NHSOs.

Results indicate that contrary to theoretical models, experiences of victimization are not central to the development of SHOs. Instead, it is the adoption of various problematic behaviors in childhood that appear as most important in the etiology of this particular type of sexual crime. This suggests that the various existing theoretical models of sexual homicide need to be revised and/or tested with additional empirical data.

This is the first study to look at developmental factors using two control groups of NHSOs and violent NHSOs.

The current study is an exploratory study examining the relationship between the abuse histories of 89 sexual offenders and the constructs of locus of control, sexual attitudes, general empathy, and denial. Of the 89 offenders, 14.6% were sexually abused, 13.5% physically abused, and 9% both sexually and physically abused, with 61.5% having no abuse history. Analyses indicated that motivation to change was higher for abused versus non‐abused offenders, and that those who were sexually abused had significantly more cognitive distortions about children than those who experienced physical abuse. Although no differences emerged in locus of control scores, our findings indicated that physically abused offenders were more able to take on the perspective of others than those who have not experienced physical abuse. The findings provide several avenues to pursue in examining the longstanding effects of abuse in the thinking and cognitions of sexual offenders.

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirically anchored, practical clinical approach that simultaneously considers risk factors for the individual and family, when assessing sexually abusive individuals of all ages and genders.

Identified were specific, empirically based variables on sizable validation and cross-validation samples (i.e. combined total of over 2,000 male and female youth, ages 4-19) that were directly related to risk for coarse sexual improprieties and/or sexually abusive behaviors.

Clinical considerations are offered regarding developmental domains not often considered and/or studied when working with sexually abusive individuals of all ages and genders. That is, attention is focussed on incorporating assessment of sexual development, erotic development, and romantic development and interventions to decrease intimacy deficits and thus improve skills in relationships. Specific strategies for utilizing the approach in assessment and treatment are described.

Overall the paper synthesizes the importance of the individual and family history with regard to those elements related to family history, sexual abuse, and intimacy deficits. The paper provides clinical, practice application with regard to assessment and risk variables in sexual abuse cases.

The manuscript introduces an original concept, the Family Lovemap with empirical data to support its underpinnings. The overall family system is viewed as a living sexual organism with its history that formulates the individual's unique Family Lovemap. The family is seen as a changing and evolving psycho-sexual system. Discussed is the impact of Family Lovemap onto the individual, providing an avenue of consideration in assessment and treatment, specifically, with issues related to bonding, attachment, and sexual development. On a broader scope, it offers more a “collective view” of a sexually abusive individual when doing a risk assessment.

This paper reviews several issues in relation to offenders with intellectual disabilities. Although some authors have indicated an increased prevalence of offenders amongst the population of individuals with intellectual disabilities, other carefully controlled studies using recognised IQ tests have found only slightly increased incidences. Studies conducted in forensic settings have reported results somewhat different to those conducted in clinical settings with respect to both prevalence and characteristics. It is noted that individuals with learning disabilities commit offences across the spectrum of criminal behaviours but there may be some over‐representation in sexual offences and arson. Issues of assessment and treatment are also addressed with comments being made on extensions of interventions into community settings. With the amount of research increasing over the last 10 years, we are becoming clearer about the relevant issues involved in designing studies, developing assessments and providing treatment to this client group.

The aim of this paper is to provide up‐to‐date discussion of the types of factors used to assess sexual offenders risk.

The current status of the factors used to assess risk in sexual offenders is examined.

Risk factors broadly fall into two categories: static factors (i.e. generally unchangeable information such as previous offence history) from which a number of actuarial scales have been developed; and dynamic factors (i.e. psychological dispositions) that are typically identified in treatment. It is suggested that these risk factors are artefacts of the same behavioural and psychological vulnerabilities at different stages of assessment, with static factors acting as markers for underlying dispositions, while dynamic factors are the underlying dispositions.

The paper discusses in some detail the status of age as a risk factor, where even though it is typically considered a static risk factor in a number of actuarial scales (allowance typically being made if individuals are over/under 25), there is a dynamic element (i.e. change with age or the passage of time) to this aspect of assessment.

This paper may be useful to practitioners working in the field, in terms of providing a useful heuristic framework for risk conceptualisation.