Desistance from Sex Offending

D. Richard Laws, PhD, until his death in 2020, was Director of Pacific Behavioural Assessment in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He was a past president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. He held adjunct faculty positions at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom and at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, and was Honourary Professor at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Dr. Laws was known in the field of sexual deviation as a developer of assessment procedures and behavior therapies.Tony Ward, PhD, is Head of School and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His research interests include cognition in offenders, rehabilitation and reintegration processes, and ethical issues in forensic psychology. He has published extensively in these areas and has over 280 academic publications.

• I. General Issues 1. Introduction II. The Criminological Perspective 2. Defining and Measuring Desistance 3. The Age–Crime Curve: A Brief Overview 4. Theoretical Perspectives on Desistance 5. Factors Influencing Desistance 6. Two Major Theories of Desistance III. The Forensic Psychological Perspective 7. Do Sex Offenders Desist? 8. Sex Offender Treatment and Desistance IV. Reentry and Reintegration 9. Barriers to Reentry and Reintegration 10. Overcoming Barriers to Reentry and Reintegration V. Recruitment 11. The Unknown Sex Offenders: Bringing Them in from the Cold 12. Blending Theory and Practice: A Criminological Perspective VI. Desistance-Focused Intervention 13. The Good Lives Model of Offender Rehabilitation: Basic Assumptions, Etiological Commitments, and Practice Implications 14. The Good Lives Model and Desistance Theory and Research: Points of Convergence 15. The Good Lives–Desistance Model: Assessment and Treatment VII. Where to from Here? 16. Dignity, Punishment, and Human Rights: The Ethics of Desistance 17. Moral Strangers or One of Us?: Concluding Thoughts

"The term 'sex offender' has become a demonizing pejorative, depriving those who have been so labeled of even a modicum of humanity. While fully appreciating the importance of maintaining public safety, Laws and Ward rightfully and courageously remind us of the decency that is still inherent in many who have committed such an offense. The book reviews a wealth of theories and data about how best to assist such persons in their efforts to remain safe and productive citizens."--Fred S. Berlin, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine"Researchers and treatment specialists have long been waiting for a book on desistance from sexual offending. Laws and Ward's book is well worth the wait. From two of the most respected practitioner/researchers in the field, Desistance from Sex Offending is a paradigm changer in sex offender treatment and reintegration."--Shadd Maruna, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Queen's University Belfast, United Kingdom"In an era of harsher sentences and stricter punishments, especially for sex offenders, this book is a breath of fresh air. Drawing on extensive clinical expertise and wisdom that comes from years of working with sex offenders, Laws and Ward provide an excellent guide to what needs to be done to help sex offenders change their lives and decrease recidivism. The Good Lives model is the future of sex offender treatment, and its concepts need to be incorporated into correctional programming. This book is an essential resource for clinicians, researchers, and policymakers. It would serve as a great text for courses on offender rehabilitation from a psychological or criminological perspective. Students would benefit from the excellent integration of research and theory into clinical practice, and would find the fresh perspective on rehabilitation to be eye opening."--Elizabeth L. Jeglic, PhD, Department of Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice "It is rare to find a book that integrates the psychological and criminological literature, particularly in the area of sex offender treatment. This important work offers a unique analysis of current treatment methods and proposes a promising model of offender rehabilitation. The authors acknowledge the complexity of factors that lead to offending and that motivate an individual to desist from offending. Their holistic, strengths-based approach, grounded in positive psychology, addresses the needs of both the offender and the community. This book will enhance the current practice of professionals who treat sex offenders, and holds promise for shifting the focus of the field."--Pamela M. Yates, PhD, Cabot Consulting and Research Services, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - A well-written text that advances the discussion of what we, as a society, can and should do with sex offenders....In their present work, Laws and Ward have accelerated the pace of our exploration into the study of desistance from sex offending. --PsycCRITIQUES, 10/1/2010ƒƒ Provides an excellent, readable survey of the criminological literature on desistance, the age-crime curve, and offender reintegration research....This is a trailblazing book, and essential reading for clinicians, researchers, academicians, attorneys, and anyone interested in the application of desistance theory to sex-offender rehabilitation. --Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, 10/1/2010ƒƒ Practitioners will welcome the more applied nature of the second half of this work with its focus on what the interview and interventions skills and approaches might look like if they adopted a more integrated GLM and desistance approach. The bringing together of theory and practice relies heavily on the work related to the use of life course interviews. Readers will find clear and specific links back to the underpinning theory that informs what is being put forward. They will also find three short case studies used to illustrate how the model might work....Makes an important contribution to theory and policy and should help promote much needed debate about what works with such offenders and what harm some current approaches may be causing offenders and wider society. --Probation Journal, 10/1/2010ƒƒ Provides an accessible introduction to cutting-edge efforts to rehabilitate sex offenders. --California Lawyer, 6/3/2011