Psychiatric Treatment of Sexual Offenders: Treating the Past Traumas in Traumatizers : A Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective

The approach of this book is a humanistic one that characterizes the individual suffering from paraphilia as a human being. With this perspective in mind, the author posits that any sexual offender who has a history of childhood trauma needs to be treated not only for the sexual offenses, but also for past trauma. Consisting of eight chapters, the first chapter addresses the issues of paraphilias and their sexual offense behavior. Chapter 2 focuses on typology and characteristics of pedophiliacs and rapists. Chapter 3 details the issues of sexual offense and hypersexuality in elderly males. Chapter 4 deals with psychotherapy, and focuses on milieu intervention and outpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy. Also noted is the addiction model of therapy for paraphilia and hypersexuality, including the twelve-step program, Sexaholics Anonymous. Chapter 5 centers on cognitive behavior, risk assessment, and relapse prevention for sexual offenders. Chapter 6 introduces the issues of pharmacotherapy and surgical castration. Information follows on legislation, neuroendocrinology, the physiology of testosterone, the mechanism of action of antiandrogens, and medications. Chapter 7 begins with a discussion of the biopsychosocial factors that may influence a victim of abuse to become a perpetrator of abuse. Chapter 8 discusses the behavioral responses that may follow exposure to trauma. This text provides a comprehensive background on the fluctuation between criminal versus clinical intervention.