Recent advances in therapy for sexual offenders

This report focuses on recent policy, and academic and clinical developments in the therapeutic management of sex offenders, including the need for more robust assessment and risk management protocols. Information is provided on current thinking about psychological and pharmacological interventions. Meta-analytic studies clearly indicate that cognitive behavioural and relapse prevention programmes are the most effective intervention, but there is a small amount of literature suggesting that pharmacological treatments may have some utility. With advances in our understanding of the neural substrates of deviant sexual arousal we may be able to develop and trial novel neuropharmacological agents that target dysfunctional neurochemical circuits in this field.