Clinical assessment and treatment of sex offenders

Sex oenders are individuals who commit sexual oenses and largely suer from a sexual deviation or paraphilia. ere are a number of sex oenders who do not have a paraphilia/paraphilic disorder but fail to control their sexual impulses for other reasons. eir sexual oending behavior may be opportunistic or impulsive, and most commonly is the result of serious personality disorders. Sexually deviant behavior can also occur secondary to various Axis 1 psychiatric conditions. e deviant sexual behavior in this instance would occur as a result of disinhibited behavior caused by the primary psychiatric condition (e.g., bipolar disorder). In these cases, the treatment of the sexual deviant behavior is through the treatment of the primary psychiatric disorder. Where the primary psychiatric problem is a serious personality disorder, the prognosis would be poor because of the inherent problems in the treatment of serious personality disorders. At the same time, there is a possibility that the symptoms of serious personality disorders such as impulsivity may respond to psychopharmacological treatment (Lee and Coccaro 2001). As there are these diagnostic issues to be resolved prior to a diagnosis of a paraphilia being made, a careful psychiatric evaluation needs to be completed.