Book Review: Stinson, J. D., Sales, B. D., & Becker, J. V. (2008). Sex Offending: Causal Theories to Inform Research, Prevention, and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. 278 pp

• Author: Eric Beauregard
• Published date: 01 December 2009
• Date: 01 December 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734016808325621
• Subject Matter: Articles

Book Reviews 583

reader focused and interested. The inclusion of photographs to illustrate physical evidence and

autopsy findings helps the reader visualize what is described in the text and to better appreciate

how MEs are able to come to accurate conclusions about cause and manner of death.

I highly recommend this book to teachers and students, to academics and practitioners,

and to anybody interested in the role that science and medicine play in solving crime. This

is not merely a book that describes case studies. It is a book that educates the reader about

how a victim’s cry for justice is answered.

Lawrence Kobilinsky

John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Stinson, J. D., Sales, B. D., & Becker, J. V. (2008). Sex Offending: Causal Theories to

Inform Research, Prevention, and Treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological

Association. 278 pp.

DOI: 10.1177/0734016808325621

Since the past 10 years, sex offenders have received a lot of attention from policy

makers. Specific legislations for sex offenders, such as community notification, residence

restriction, and civil commitment, have been put in place everywhere in the United States

and Canada. Most of these legislations assume that sex offenders represent a specific type

of criminal that requires specific interventions. Interestingly, it seems as if practitioners

involved in treating sex offenders share the same assumption, explaining why so many

specific treatment programs exist for sex offenders. But are sex offenders really different

from other criminals? Are the causes leading to sexual offending very different from the

causes leading to general offending? Jill D. Stinson, Bruce D. Sales, and Judith V. Becker

have attempted to shed some light on the etiology of sexual offending. Besides offering a

comprehensive and critical summary of the different theories that have been proposed to

explain sexual offending, the authors introduce a new integrated theory of sexual deviance,

which incorporates developmental, psychological, and behavioral components.

The book is divided in to 11 chapters. The first chapter consists of the book introduction.

Chapter 2 discusses the methodological limitations of relevant research. This chapter is a

must-read, especially for those outside academia who are working in the field with sex

offenders. It offers in a readable fashion some general cautions about the research being con-

ducted on sex offenders. Chapters 3 to 9 present a nice overlook of the biological, cognitive,

behavioral, social learning, personality, evolutionary, and the integrative theories, respec-

tively. Chapter 10 is devoted entirely to their new integrated theory, which they refer to as the

multimodal self-regulation theory. The authors propose that self-regulation deficits emerging

from early childhood experiences shape the development of deviant sexual interest and

arousal. Finally, Chapter 11 offers future directions for research and treatment.

It seems as though there is an ever-growing collection of books recently being published

on theories of sexual offending. Even so, Sex Offending: Causal Theories to Inform

Research, Prevention, and Treatment emerges as a contribution to this literature. Stinson,