Book Review: Killing the President: Assassinations, Attempts, and Rumored Attempts on U.S. Commanders-in-Chief

DOI10.1177/0734016811408288
AuthorErin Denton
Published date01 March 2012
Date01 March 2012
Subject MatterBook Reviews
Section V confronts the issue of sex offender recruitment for treatment. Many sex offenders
refuse voluntary treatment and only a few actually complete treatment. Data indicates that a large
number of candidates for treatment exist currently under parole supervision and an even larger group
is unknown to authorities. The book presents two public health efforts to reach potential and active
offenders and treat them, Stop It Now!in the United States and Berlin, and Prevention Program Dun-
kelfeld in Germany. While Stop It Now!had only modest success, Dunkelfeld helped 400 offenders
unknown to authorities complete psychiatrically based treatment in 3 years.
Section VI presents the good lives model (GLM) of offender rehabilitation and how it can be sup-
plemented with criminological desistance theory to create a new model: GLDM. The GLM focuses
on how offenders develop and live better lives grounded within a restorative approach rather than
risk management only. The GLM is a ‘‘value-laden process ... including prudential values (best
interest of individual), ethical values (community interests when in conflict with individual) and
epistemic values ( ... best practice models ...).’’ The authors assert that GLM approaches proble-
matic behavior through the individuals’ strengths to change behavior and increase an individual’s
opportunity to lead a meaningful life. The GLM examines the offender’s agency to create prosocial
pursuit of ‘‘biological, psychological, and social goals’’ that all human beings desire. The authors
state that GLM’s primary human goals include knowledge, play and work, autonomy, inner peace,
relatedness, community, spirituality, happiness, and creativity. Offenders have met these needs
through criminal behaviors. The GLM ascertains how and why the offense occurred, and focuses
on the future to learn the individual’s motivations to change. The GLM requires an individualized
approach to each offender. In other words, GLM offers a systematic approach to rehabilitation that is
‘‘strength-based, risk oriented,’’ and can include desistance factors because it stresses ‘‘agency,
interdependency, and development.’’
After a thorough assessment that includes risk and factors for desistance, GLDM is developed by
the therapist and requires that core goods be identified and associated with corresponding identities
(e.g., the ‘‘good’’ of relating to others corresponds to identity—spouse/parent/friend). Then, the
internal and external conditions necessary to implement the new identity can be developed to allow
the individual to achieve primary goods in a prosocial way. Laws and Ward theorize that GLDM
helps therapists to construct the ‘‘psychological and social capital needed by offenders to live better
lives ... to redeem themselves.’’ The authors present three fictional case studies based on compo-
sites of several actual clients to illustrate how GLDM helps sex offenders desist criminal behavior.
While the case studies are helpful to demonstrate how GLDM can be used in clinical settings, they
simplify the complex problems facing these offenders.
This book offers a theoretical framework to guide rehabilitation and correctional practitioners to
construct successful interventions for sex offenders. Discussion of theories from several disciplines
provides a broad foundation to examine how society treats offenders, and to implement more power-
fully successful plans and programs. This book is best suited for practitioners in psychology, social
work, corrections, and probation.
W. M. Oliver and N. E. Marion
Killing the President: Assassinations, Attempts, and Rumored Attempts on U.S.
Commanders-in-Chief. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. pp. xiii, 235. $44.95. ISBN: 978-0-313-36474-7
Reviewed by: Erin Denton, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DOI: 10.1177/0734016811408288
This book provides a concise description, as the title suggests, of assassinations and attempts
(including rumored) on the life of U.S. Presidents (and, when warranted, Presidential nominees).
136 Criminal Justice Review 37(1)

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT