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16 Psych., Crime & L. 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/pcyceadl16 and id is 1 raw text is: Psychology, Crime & Law 1 Routledge Vol. 16, Nos. 1-2, January-February 2010, 1-3 TayIOr&Frnds Group Introductory comments to the special issue: contemporary perspectives on sex offending, its assessment, and treatment Jessica Woodhamsa* and Ruth Hatcherb Centre for the Study of Crime, Violence and Disorder, Francis Close Hall Campus, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ, UK bSchool of Psychology: Forensic Section, University of Leicester, 106 New Walk, Leicester LEI 7EA, UK Research on sex offending has an established history. As an illustration, the first paper published on sex offenders in the journal Psychology, Crime & Law appeared in its first edition, some 14 years ago. A review of the journal's contents pages since its inception reveals that at least 34 other articles have been published on the issue of sex offending within the last 14 years, with a dramatic increase in such publications in the last 8 years. Furthermore, the public's interest in sex offending is just as apparent today as it was 14 years ago; indeed some might say that the lay person's interest in this field had deepened. It is a type of offending behaviour that continues to have a profound impact on society and how we live. As an illustration, in 2007-2008, in England and Wales, 53 540 sexual offences were reported in the British Crime Survey with 41 460 of these representing more serious sex offences (including rape, sexual assault and sexual activity with children) (Kershaw, Nicholas, & Walker, 2008). A review of the abstracts published in the earlier issues of Psychology, Crime & Law reveals a focus largely on sex offender treatment and the treatment process. At the start of the new century this interest broadened with recognition of the diversity of the term 'sex offender' and the heterogeneity of the people the term represents. As a consequence, more research began to appear on the nature of sex offending. This breadth of research through the years is echoed in this special issue; the themes of diversity within the population of sex offenders as well as within this research field itself, are continued. The idea for this special issue was 'conceived' at a one-day conference on contemporary issues in sexual offending, which was held at the University of Leicester in 2006 and hosted by the two editors. It has since grown from the three papers given at the conference into a much larger issue which brings together eight papers on contemporary issues associated with the nature of sexual offending and intervening with the perpetrators. The special issue begins with three papers which focus on the nature and development of sex offending. Our first paper by Westerlund and colleagues reports on their twin study of over 4000 Finnish males. Within this paper the authors *Corresponding author. Email: jwoodhams@glos.ac.uk ISSN 1068-316X print/ISSN 1477-2744 © 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10683160802621883 http://www.informaworld.com

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