Working with Sexual Offenders

Since the mid 1980s, a mass of scholarly material has been published on sex offender treatment. There has also been a gradual recognition by academics and practitioners working in the field of the particular challenges faced by those providing treatment for sexual offenders. Various detrimental impacts have been associated with providing treatment to sexual offenders, including stress, burnout and vicarious traumatisation. In this book, the author presents the results of interviews conducted with a variety of Prison Service staff working with sex offenders on the UK-based Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP). Participants were asked about the positive and negative effects of working with sexual offenders, the quality of training they had received, and what types of personal and organisational support were available to them. The results show that the UK Prison Service needs to give greater consideration when selecting candidates to deliver the SOTP. In addition, it is concluded that there should be further staff training for those working on the SOTP, and that existing sources of organisational support need to be improved.