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Sexually Harmful Adults;
Forensic Psychology Graham J. Towl (Editor), David A. Crighton (Editor);
Book: 480 pp - Chapter: 10
This chapter has explored sexual harm by outlining firstly the theories that have been developed to understand the behaviour. It proceeded to discuss the interventions currently used to rehabilitate sexually harmful behaviours, and how those treatments have been evaluated and measured, before going onto to discuss the difficulties in measurement and evaluation in meta-analytic studies, the ethics of such analysis, and ways of overcoming such pitfalls.
The second part of the chapter shows how sexual harm has become a major challenge for social policy, and the social and political panic around sexual offending and sexual harm is discussed, showing how more laws were introduced to appease perceived public disquiet. The law is now so encompassing that even consensual adult activity in private has become confused in statute with sexual offending. In this way the law fails to equate sexual harm with sexual offending, and the result is confusion, conflict and further strain on stretched resources. The consequence has been to foster a climate of concern around children that has resulted in fewer activities for them to do, less freedom, and therefore less ability to deal with risk. The resulting culture of fear is, it is argued, a threat to security and safety.
This chapter has explored sexual harm by outlining firstly the theories that have been developed to understand the behaviour. It proceeded to discuss the interventions currently used to rehabilitate sexually harmful behaviours, and how those treatments have been evaluated and measured, before going onto to discuss the difficulties in measurement and evaluation in meta-analytic studies, the ethics of such analysis, and ways of overcoming such pitfalls.
The second part of the chapter shows how sexual harm has become a major challenge for social policy, and the social and political panic around sexual offending and sexual harm is discussed, showing how more laws were introduced to appease perceived public disquiet. The law is now so encompassing that even consensual adult activity in private has become confused in statute with sexual offending. In this way the law fails to equate sexual harm with sexual offending, and the result is confusion, conflict and further strain on stretched resources. The consequence has been to foster a climate of concern around children that has resulted in fewer activities for them to do, less freedom, and therefore less ability to deal with risk. The resulting culture of fear is, it is argued, a threat to security and safety.