How to Work With Sex Offenders: A Handbook for Criminal Justice, Human Service, and Mental Health Professionals (Haworth Marriage and the Family) [Paperback]

Rudy Flora (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0789014998 | ISBN-13: 978-0789014993 | Edition: 1

Learn to work effectively with sexual criminals!

How to Work with Sex Offenders is the first complete manual available on the subject for professionals who deal with this very difficult population. This user-friendly, comprehensive resource presents new data that will give you techniques for effectively interviewing sex offenders and outlines innovative treatment options in an understandable way, but that is just part of what makes this book unique. How to Work with Sex Offenders walks you through the criminal justice, human services, and mental health systems as applied to sex offenders from start to finish -- you'll learn what happens to the offender from the point when he/she is apprehended, through prosecution, adjudication, and treatment.

From the Preface, by Rudy Flora: “Sexual offending impacts both victim and offender. The clinical harm experienced by a victim is significant and recovery is long-termed. Offenders, too, are often trapped in the tragedy of their deviance. Sex offenders are extremely skillful at avoiding detection, and will use any 'system confusion’displayed by providers to their advantage. [With this book] the reader will be exposed, in a step-by-step format, to how the criminal justice, human service, and mental health systems function.”

How to Work With Sex Offenders: A Handbook for Criminal Justice, Human Service, and Mental Health Professionals examines:

• how the current system works, from start to finish
• the roles of child protective services workers, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, physicians/hospital staff, district attorneys, defense lawyers, judges, mental health professionals, foster families, probation officers, correctional officers, parole officers, and social services providers
• individual, family, and group therapy models
• basic universal concepts regarding identification of sex offenders
• profiles of exhibitionists, frotteurs, voyeurs, pedophiles, rapists, sexual sadists and paraphiliacs
• what to expect when called as an expert witness at a sex offender's trial
• sexual assault as a clinical disorder
• suggested treatment formats for sex offenders in an outpatient setting, inpatient psychiatric hospital, or correctional facility
• the costs of incarceration as well as inpatient and outpatient costs
• the difficulties of parole and probational supervision for sex offenders
• presentencing reports and interviewing strategies
• and much more

Many sex offenders were early victims themselves. Incarceration alone will not alleviate the problem; other methods to prevent repeat offences are needed. Those who encounter these offenders require certain skills in order to properly protect the public and the victim as well as helping the offenders themselves. How to Work with Sex Offenders is the resource you need to handle this extraordinarily difficult and vitally important task.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"CLEAR AND EASY TO READ . . . A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE. . . . An invaluable resource." -- The Children's Rights of New York, Inc. Hotline

"Each chapter contains valuable information with which investigators, prosecutors, child protective workers, and therapists should be familiar." -- Mario J.P. Dennis, PhD, Clinical Psychologist,Harrisonburg,Virginia

"INFORMATIVE. . . . Jargon-free and straightforward. . . . RECOMMENDED." -- E-Streams

"If you work with sex offenders and believe in knowing what other professionals are doing, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU." -- Divine, Inc. (formerly Doody's Notes)

"PACKED WITH RELEVANT INFORMATION. . . . Essential for the novice practitioner." -- Frank R. Baskind, PhD, Dean, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, Richmond --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789014998
• ISBN-13: 978-0789014993
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Focus on Clinical and Bureaucratic Matters, May 29, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How to Work With Sex Offenders: A Handbook for Criminal Justice, Human Service, and Mental Health Professionals (Haworth Marriage and the Family) (Paperback)

If you're a bureaucrat working with sex offenders this book will appeal to you. It gives a broad overview of the legal and clinical issues with lots of lists and bullet points. If you're more interested in the inter-personal dynamics of working with sex offenders or understanding what really motivates and drives them in their specific behaviors, then this book is not for you.

I found the book curiously lacking and somewhat out of date, even though it was published in 2001. For example, there is no mention of online activities, like pornography and chat rooms, and how those are fueling the addictive cycles of the users and perhaps contributing to other behaviors that more directly affect people in physical ways. Indeed, there is only one small section at the end of the book on the subject of sex addiction. What about the victimizing of children in online porn? What about the use of chat rooms to lure adolescent girls and boys into face to face meetings? What about the increasing use of hidden digital cameras for voyeuristic activities? These, and others, are the new frontier in offending, so to speak.

The author is in private practice but his previous years as a probation officer illuminate his approach to the subject. Although he includes a six page section on women offenders, Flora's view of sex offenders is definitely a male view, and he seems to view them overwhelmingly as heterosexual males abusing women and children. Exhibitionists and voyeurs seem to be males, for example.

I found the author's omission of a discussion of cultural background and racial propensities in offending notable, especially given his Hispanic surname. Also, missing was any significant mention of sexual orientation issues.

Overall, I found this book disappointing. Perhaps my expectations were unrealistic, so I'll give it a somewhat neutral three stars rating.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great starter book for those wanting to research sex offenders, October 21, 2006

By 

dexter mcmillian "pit bull" (sc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Work With Sex Offenders: A Handbook for Criminal Justice, Human Service, and Mental Health Professionals (Haworth Marriage and the Family) (Paperback)

great for those in the mental health field, law enforcement and psychology fields.......a must for all parents but i also found the material outdated since the book was written in 2001

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Reference Book for all Mental Health Providers!, December 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Work With Sex Offenders: A Handbook for Criminal Justice, Human Service, and Mental Health Professionals (Haworth Marriage and the Family) (Hardcover)

Flora utilizes his many years of expertise while drawing from the scholars in the field to compile an excellent resource on how to work with sex offenders. This book is a must for all professionals and students in the field of mental health.