Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:43:57.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sex Crimes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Derek Chiswick
Derek Chiswick*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Crimes relating to sexual behaviour account for only 1 per cent of all indictable crimes but for half a century sex offenders have been the subject of a disproportionate amount of psychiatric interest and enquiry. The belief, that there is a link between specific mental malfunction and sex offending, as distinct from other forms of offending appears to have wide acceptance. In 1972 the Royal College of Psychiatrists appeared sufficiently confident of this view to ask candidates aspiring to membership of the College to “Give an account of the psychopathology of rape”. Like incest and buggery, rape is an act, a deed, an item of behaviour. To speak of the aetiology, treatment and prognosis of such acts is to misapply terminology and to confuse criminal behaviour with mental disorder. The problem is not simply one of semantic niceties for the sloppy use of medical language in this controversial area can lead jurists and policy-makers to carry expectations that lack any firm psychiatric basis. This contribution will attempt to review some legal and psychiatric aspects of the more serious crimes.

Type
Symposium on Sexual Deviation
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 143 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 236 - 242
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amir, M. (1971) Patterns in Forcible Rape. Chicago: University Press.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. H. (1978) An overview of the seminar. In Sex Offenders—A Symposium: Special Hospitals Research Report No, 14. (ed. Gunn, J.). London: Special Hospitals Research Unit.Google Scholar
Beezley Mrazek, P. (1980) Sexual abuse of children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 91–5.Google Scholar
Bennett-England, R. (1980) Sex offenders and the media. In Sex Offenders in the Criminal Justice System: Cropwood Conference Series No. 12. (ed. West, D. J.). Cambridge: Institute of Criminology.Google Scholar
Bluglass, R. (1979) Incest. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 22, 152–7.Google Scholar
Bluglass, R. (1982) Assessing dangerousness in sex offenders. In Dangerousness: Psychiatric Assessment and Management. (eds. Hamilton, J. R. and Freeman, H.). London: Gaskell.Google Scholar
Bowden, P. (1978) Rape. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 20, 286–90.Google Scholar
British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (1981) Child Sexual Abuse. Rochdale: Baspcan.Google Scholar
Christiansen, K. O., Elers-Neilson, M., le Maire, L. & Stürup, G. K. (1965) Recidivism among sexual offenders. In Scandinavian Studies in Criminology, Vol. 1. (ed. Christiansen, K. O.). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution (1957) (Wolfenden) Report on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution. Command paper 247. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cox, M. (1979) Dynamic psychotherapy with sex offenders. In Sexual Deviation, 2nd edition. (ed. Rosen, I.). Oxford: University Press.Google Scholar
Criminal Law Revision Committee (1980) Working Paper on Sexual Offences. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Dell, S. & Parker, E. (1979) Special hospitals case register—triennial statistics 1972–4. In Special Hospitals Case Register: Special Hospitals Research Report No. 15. London: Special Hospitals Research Unit.Google Scholar
Floud, J. (1982) Dangerousness and Criminal Justice. British Journal of Criminology, 22, 213–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebhard, P. H., Gagnon, J. H., Pomeroy, W. B. & Christenson, C. V. (1965) Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types. London: Hienemann.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N., Way, C. & Soothill, K. L. (1977a) Behavioural types of rape. British Journal of Psychiatry, 130, 32–42.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N., Soothill, K. L. & Pope, P. J. (1977b) Medical Remands in the Criminal Court: Maudsley Monograph No. 25. Oxford: University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N., Soothill, K. L. & Way, C. K. (1978) Sibling and parent-child incest offences. British Journal of Criminology, 18, 40–52.Google Scholar
Gibbens, T. C. N., Soothill, K. L. & Way, C. K. (1981) Sex offences against young girls: a long-term record study. Psychological Medicine, 11, 351–7.Google Scholar
Greenland, C. (1977) Psychiatry and the dangerous sexual offender. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 22, 155–9.Google Scholar
Gunn, J. & Robertson, G. (1982) An evaluation of Grendon Prison. In Abnormal Offenders, Delinquency, and the Criminal Justice System, Volume I. (eds. Gunn, J. and Farrington, D. P.). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Guttmacher, M. S. & Weihofen, H. (1952) Psychiatry and the Law. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Hall Williams, J. E. (1977) Serious heterosexual attack. Medicine, Science and the Law, 17, 140–6.Google Scholar
Halleck, S. L. (1981) The ethics of antiandrogen therapy. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 642–3.Google Scholar
Hinton, J. W., O'Neill, M. T. & Webster, S. (1980) Psychophysiological assessment of sex offenders in a security hospital. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 9, 205–16.Google Scholar
Howells, K. & Wright, E. (1978) The sexual attitudes of aggressive sexual offenders. British Journal of Criminology, 18, 170–4.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. M. (1971) Rape: Offenders and their Victims. Springfield, Illinois: Charles Thomas.Google Scholar
Maisch, H. (1973) Incest. London: André Deutsch.Google Scholar
McClintock, F. H. (1980) Criminal careers of sex offenders: recidivism, criminal justice and politics. In Sex Offenders in the Criminal Justice System: Cropwood Conference Series No. 12 (ed. West, D. J.). Cambridge: Institute of Criminology.Google Scholar
Noble, M. & Mason, J. K. (1978) Incest. Journal of Medical Ethics, 4, 64–70.Google Scholar
Reiber, I. & Sigusch, V. (1979) Psychosurgery on sex offenders and sexual “deviants” in West Germany. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 8, 523–7.Google Scholar
Renvoize, J. (1982) Incest: A Family Pattern. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Scottish Law Commission (1981) The Law of Incest in Scotland: Report on a Reference under Section 3(1)(e) of the Law Commissions Act 1965. Command paper 8422. Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Soothill, K. L. & Gibbens, T. C. N. (1978) Recidivism of Sexual Offenders: a re-appraisal. British Journal of Criminology, 18, 267–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stürup, G. K. (1968) Treatment of sexual offenders in Herstedvester, Denmark—the rapists. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 44, Supplement No. 204.Google Scholar
Virkkunen, M. (1974) Incest offences and alcoholism. Medicine, Science and the Law, 14, 124–8.Google Scholar
Virkkunen, M. (1975) Victim-precipitated paedophilia offences. British Journal of Criminology, 15, 175–80.Google Scholar
Walmsley, R. & White, K. (1979) Sexual Offences, Consent and Sentencing: Home Office Research Study No. 54. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
West, D. J., Roy, C. & Nichols, F. L. (1978) Understanding Sexual Attacks. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Wright, R. & West, D. J. (1981) Rape—a comparison of group offences and lone assaults. Medicine, Science and the Law, 21, 25–30.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.