How can we understand offending and victimisation processes in relation to abuse images and the Internet? The contributors are amongst the foremost researchers and practitioners in this field, and their groundbreaking chapters lay down the foundations for systematic and critical development of knowledge and understanding.

"Sexual assault continues to be a pervasive problem, both for society in general and within the military community. To assist the Air Force in its continued efforts to combat sexual assault within its ranks, we reviewed the existing empirical literature on the characteristics and behaviors of adult perpetrators who commit sexual assault against other adults. Our search was not limited to studies of military populations. While a vast majority of the existing literature has focused on sole male perpetrators who assault female victims, we identified some research on other types of perpetrators, including female sexual assault perpetrators, men who perpetrate assault against other men, and perpetrators who participate in group sexual assault. This body of research indicates that adult perpetrators are diverse in terms of their demographics, background characteristics, and motivations. Moreover, research indicates that sexual assault perpetration is likely influenced by a combination of factors, including an individual's developmental and family history; his or her personality, including attitudes/cognitions; and environmental factors, including peer attitudes and alcohol consumption. The complexity of factors that influence sexual assault perpetration and the multiple pathways that lead to an attack make it difficult to predict whether an individual is prone to commit sexual assault. While predicting sexual assault perpetration is problematic, we identified a number of factors related to perpetration that may be relevant for intervention efforts and offer recommendations for the Air Force"--Publisher's web site.

Public policy responses to child sexual abuse are dominated by interventions designed to take effect only after offenders have already begun offending, and after children have already been sexually abused. Comparatively little attention has been given to alternative prevention strategies – particularly to those aimed at preventing sexual abuse before it might otherwise occur. Considerable knowledge has been accumulated on the characteristics, modus operandi and persistence of offenders, the characteristics, circumstances and outcomes for victims, and the physical and social settings in which sexual abuse occurs, but little work has been done to systematically apply this knowledge to prevention. This book aims to fulfill this objective through integrating clinical and criminological concepts and knowledge to inform a more comprehensive and effective public policy approach to preventing child sexual abuse. Empirical and theoretical knowledge concerning child sexual abuse is integrated with broader developments in evidence-based crime and child maltreatment prevention, leading to new ideas about understanding and preventing child sexual abuse. This book will be essential reading for anybody with interests in this field.

The purpose of the child maltreatment uniform definitions and recommended data elements is to present a definition of child maltreatment, its associated terms, and recommended data elements for voluntary use by individuals and organizations in the public health community. The definitions and data elements are intended to promote and improve consistency of child maltreatment surveillance for public health practices. It is designed to be used by state and local health department staff to assist in and provide a framework for the collection of public health surveillance data on child maltreatment. The definitions included in the document draw upon definitions that are currently in use in the literature and were adapted in collaboration with a panel of experts on child maltreatment and public health surveillance. The definitions and data elements are designed be flexible tools for developing an ongoing surveillance system. Agencies that use the document can modify data elements to fit their system. This document is the third in a series of Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements which includes: Intimate Partner Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements and Sexual Violence Surveillance: Uniform Definitions and Recommended Data Elements.

Topical and critical in style, this book provides readers with an evaluation of the development of policy and legislative measures to control sex offenders in the UK.

Child sexual abuse has become a prevalent topic of study and discussion in the fields of Child Psychology, Pediatrics, Law Enforcement, and Social Work. But even with the widespread knowledge of identifiable behavior in its victims and abusers, society's response to child sexual abuse is failing profoundly. Rebecca Bolen's authoritative book, Child Sexual Abuse: Its Scope and Our Failure, clearly defines the scope of child sexual abuse and addresses society's ability to respond to the problem. It is her thesis that society's response to child sexual abuse is failing because the policies, programs, and statutes designed to assess and identify abuse are grounded in historical and myth-bound theoretical child sexual abuse literature rather than in the empirical knowledge base. This comprehensive text on child sexual abuse covers: The historical conceptualization of child sexual abuse, starting with Freud. A review of the empirical literature on the incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse. The professional response to child sexual abuse. The most sophisticated model of risk of child sexual abuse done to date. Two new models of understanding reactions by nonoffending guardians. The pervasiveness of the threat of extrafamilial abuse. £/LIST£ This text is divided into three main areas of discussion: Sociohistorical Context, Scope of the Problem, and Aftermath. This comprehensive review can be used not only as a text, but also as a primary reference for professionals in government, law enforcement, medical, mental health, and any agency that works with child sexual abuse offenders and victims.

Why is child sexual abuse committed primarily by men and male adolescents, unlike other forms of child abuse? Is child sex offending, rather than being a deviant masculine sexual practice, related to normative masculine practices, that is, practices structured on dynamic and changing relations of power? Using a practice-based sociological approach, the relationship between masculinities, sexualities and child sexual abuse is analysed and the power/powerlessness theory is developed to explain the predominantly male problem of child sex offending. The theory postulates that, because the social construction of masculinities involves the construction of dynamic and changing relations of power between men, men's lives are characterised by a combination of power and powerlessness. The book argues that an offender's experiences of powerlessness as a result of his relationships with other men is the key to understanding child sex offending, since sexuality is a key social practice for the alleviation of experiences of powerlessness and for establishing relations of power with other men. In particular, the theory argues that a man's particular attachment to the link between sexuality and experiences of masculinity and power will be a key factor for determining how he does sex and whom he chooses as a sexual partner. In the final chapter, the theory is tested through a re-analysis of offender interviews.

Sex offending, and in particular child sex offending, is a complex area for policy makers, theorists and practitioners. A focus on punishment has reinforced sex offending as a problem that is essentially ‘other’ to society and discourages engagement with the real scale and scope of sexual offending in the UK. This book looks at the growth of work with sex offenders, questioning assumptions about the range and types of such offenders and what effective responses to these might be. Divided into four sections, this book sets out the growth of a broad legislative context and the emergence of child sexual offenders in criminal justice policy and practice. It goes on to consider a range of offences and victim typologies arguing that work with offenders and victims is complex and can provide a rich source of theoretical and practical knowledge that should be utilised more fully by both policy makers and practitioners. It includes work on female sex offenders, electronic monitoring and animal abuse as well as exploring interventions with sex offenders in three different contexts; prisons, communities and hostels. Bringing together academic, practice and policy experts, the book argues that a clear but complex theoretical and policy approach is required if the risk of re- offending and further victimisation is to be reduced. Ultimately, this book questions whether it makes sense to locate responsibility for responding to sexual offending solely within the criminal justice domain.