Cognitive Approaches to the Assessment of Sexual Interest in Sexual Offenders

David Thornton is Treatment Director at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Centre in Wisconsin, USA, which specializes in the rehabilitation of dangerous sex offenders. He developed the Thornton Program, which places emphasis on the patient implementing what has been learnt in therapy. D. Richard Laws is the Director of the Pacific Psychological Assessment Corporation in Victoria, Canada, an organization that specializes in assessment and treatment tools for clinicians to use when treating sex offenders.

• About the Editors. List of Contributors.Series Editors’ Preface.Introduction (David Thornton and D. Richard Laws).1 Penile Plethysmography: Strengths, Limitations, Innovations (D. Richard Laws).2 The Abel Assessment for Sexual Interests – 2: A Critical Review (Susan J. Sachsenmaier and Carmen L.Z. Gress).3 Affinity: The Development of a Self-Report Assessment of Paedophile Sexual Interest Incorporating a Viewing Time Validity Measure (David V. Glasgow).4 Cognitive Modelling of Sexual Arousal and Interest: Choice Reaction Time Measures (Carmen L.Z. Gress and D. Richard Laws).5 The Implicit Association Test as a Measure of Sexual Interest (Nicola S. Gray and Robert J. Snowden).6 Measuring Child Molesters’ Implicit Cognitions about Self and Children (Kevin L. Nunes).7 The Rapid Serial Visual Presentation Test of Sexual Interest in Child Molesters (Vanja E. Flak, Anthony R. Beech and Glyn W. Humphreys).8 Assessing Sexual Interest with the Emotional Stroop Test (Paul Smith).9 Comparing Two Implicit Cognitive Measures of Sexual Interest: A Pictorial Modified Stroop Task and the Implicit Association Test (Caoilte ´O Ciardha and Michael Gormley).10 The Startle Probe Reflex: An Alternative Approach to the Measurement of Sexual Interest (Jeffrey E. Hecker, Matthew W. King and R. Jamie Scoular).11 Postscript: Steps Towards Effective Assessment of Sexual Interest (David Thornton and D. Richard Laws).Index.

"Thoroton and Laws' edited volume Cognitive Approaches to the Assessment of Sexual interest in Sexual Offendersis a massively useful brief primer on the variety of methods from experimental cognitive psychology that have been examined in relation to this question." (Psychology & Sexuality, January 2010)