Understanding, Assessing, and Rehabilitating Juvenile Sexual Offenders
Phil Rich's book "Understanding, Assessing, and Rehabilitating Juvenile Sexual Offenders" about the assessment of adolescents who sexually abuse others, therapeutic intervention with this client group and rehabilitation, is a very comprehensive and readable piece of literature. The breadth of information provided in the book, combining current research and clinical practice, seems to make it an ideal manual for people starting out in the field of adolescent sexual abusers as well as for people working clinically with the client group but who have little access to current literature advocating new research findings.Well-researched, Phil Rich critically reviews in Section I the current knowledge and research base on Juvenile Sexual Offenders. Section II, emphasises one of the most important topics when working with Juvenile Sex Offenders, that is, the assessment of risk and inherent difficulties in assessing risk of recidivism in juveniles who sexually abuse. Section II introduces the rationale, application and usefulness of Stetson's/Phil Rich's own Structured Clinical Assessment Tool. Finally, in Section III, the author approaches treatment and intervention with juvenile sexual abusers, providing a general overview of forensic mental health treatment from pharmacology to psychotherapy, and then more specific and offence-related work with the client group, advocating an eclectic as well as holistic approach to treatment and rehabilitation of the young offenders.In sum, "Understanding, Assessing, and Rehabilitating Juvenile Sexual Offenders" is an enjoyable read, with the only critique being the use of the term "kids". Maybe this is an American versus British English thing, but it seems too colloquial a word for the nature of the book and the professional audience it is aimed at."...an essential resource for any professional working with juvenile sex offenders..." (Child Right, Jan/Feb 2004)