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The Nature of the Beast: Sex Offender Treatment

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Critical Perspectives in Forensic Care

Abstract

The genesis of sex-offender therapy in penal and psychiatric settings is part of the ongoing trend towards medicalising criminal behaviour. It has been accompanied by burgeoning numbers of professional, often male, practitioners who are accorded expert status regarding knowledge and skills. The colonisation of rape, child abuse and domestic violence as therapeutic territory, and resources to support it, attests to the power and prestige of pseudo-science in contemporary society. A powerful ideology shifts attention away from the structural inequities of gender division, and fixes the ‘gaze’ upon individual victims and perpetrators. Medical language obscures the endemic nature of sexual violence, and offers the salvation of treatment and cure.

They come out with all the jargon. They tell you in that Grendon whine about the therapy they’ve had, how they’ve talked it through, how they’ve come to terms with what they did. And running through it all, bubbling away beneath the surface, you hear the self-justifying snivel of the unrepentant rapist. (Zahavi, 1991).

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Authors
  1. Dave Mercer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Forensic Practice Development Centre, Ashworth Hospital, UK

    Dave Mercer RMN, BA (Hons), PGCE, MA (lecturer-practitioner, Course Director) (lecturer-practitioner, Course Director)

  2. Diploma in Forensic Care and Management, UK

    Dave Mercer RMN, BA (Hons), PGCE, MA (lecturer-practitioner, Course Director) (lecturer-practitioner, Course Director)

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© 1998 Dave Mercer

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Mercer, D. (1998). The Nature of the Beast: Sex Offender Treatment. In: Mason, T., Mercer, D. (eds) Critical Perspectives in Forensic Care. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26104-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-26104-8_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-69311-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-26104-8

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