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CJCCJ/Volume 63.4 (2021)

Sexual Crime and Trauma

Helen Swaby, Belinda Winder, Rebecca Lievesley, Kerensa Hocken, Nicholas Blagden, and Phil Banyard (Eds.)
Switzerland: Springer Nature. 2020. 252 p.

A comprehensive look at the issue of trauma within sexual crime: Trauma-Informed Care (TIC)
If the trauma is scientifically studied and recognized as a public health problem, the results need to be updated regularly and practically presented to intervention professionals. This is the purpose of this book. Sexual crimes are a prominent place in the field of trauma, for offenders and victims. If so, what are the influential theories and practices for treating sexual offences with consideration of trauma?

While the management of sexual crimes has existed for many years, it is recalled that it was not satisfactory, not sufficiently aware of the place of trauma, little attentive to the patient’s needs and without efficient methods. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies have made it possible to highlight the dominant role of trauma in the future appearance of aggressive behaviour, in particular sexual violence.

The book is divided into eight substantial chapters. Each chapter highlights a problem about the theme of sexual crime and trauma. The book expresses the necessary and effective compatibility of the accountability of facts on the one hand and the humanization of treatment on the other. To prevent sexual recidivism, it becomes essential to integrate the advances in scientific literature into professional practices, the neurocognitive and psychosocial impacts of childhood trauma. Early trauma from ACE can lead to problematic cognitive patterns, emotional deregulation, dysfunctional relationship patterns etc. In the daily life of offenders, we see their socially inappropriate coping strategies, called “dynamic risk factors” (p.208), as consequences of trauma.

While care always begins with a professional who maintains hope in his client, effective interventions cannot escape the humanization of treatment. Bringing hope to our client who has committed a sex crime is a theoretical and practical paradigm shift. It is an authentic positioning vis-à-vis facts and not people, vis-à-vis an assessment and treatment centered on the client, his needs, and his strengths, considering trauma as obstacles to change and the achievement of a good life.

The book brings together a group of specialists to comprehensively question three areas of intervention. First, it is proposed to revert to the issue of care for trauma-related sex crimes. Then, within care, the book specifies the place of professionals. Finally, analyzes are developed about specific audiences affected by the traumas found in sexual crimes. 

Care for trauma-related sexual crimes
Around the world, there are many approaches to dealing with trauma with sexual offenders. Through accounts of interventions, Jones lists all these approaches (p.1) by analyzing the essential role of attachment (client / professional) and the social sphere in the treatment, change and prevention of problems (examples feminist approaches and restorative justice). Prescott questions the difficulty in the ability to address the link between trauma and sexual recidivism (risk factors) in secure settings such as prisons and forensic hospitals (p.33). Prescott discusses the current “challenges” in applying TIC and the Good Lives Model (GLM) in secure environments for clients to develop fulfilling lives.

Levenson, Willis, and Prescott report that professionals educated about the prevalence of ACE in sex crime clients offer more effective treatments. By being sensitive to trauma, professionals better assess self-regulatory deficits and individually plan treatment based on the strengths, needs, risks and behaviours of clients (p.197). The consideration of trauma links clinical expertise to the evidence of the Risk-Needs-Responsivity (RNR) model. 

The place of professionals?
Taylor, Akerman, and Hocken suggest cultivating a compassionate practice for those who have committed sexual offences (p.57). They advocate a compassionate therapeutic approach by linking traumatic experiences and sexual offences. They offer theoretical and practical modelling of empathy as an axis of work with the client. To manage the repeated exposure to trauma by professionals and the impact on their well-being, Lucre and Taylor envision staff (and group dynamics) support focused on compassion development (CFSS) as a “Antidote” to the cost of care in medico-legal services (p.143). The HMP Grendon UK program is also featured. This Therapeutic Community (TC) model works with sexual offenders on their traumas and offenses for self-acceptance and a life away from crime (p.175). Through this program, Akerman and Andrews discuss the importance of a positive work environment for professionals and clients.

Trauma and sexual crimes: what intervention with young people and women?
Two specific populations are discussed, young people (p.85) and women (p.113) confronted with trauma and sexual crime.

To understand the impact of ACEs on young people and the interaction with the assessment and treatment of sexual issues, Creeden advocates a contextual approach to ACEs from a developmental perspective. A developmental approach would allow individualized application of treatment and RNR principles. Creeden here evokes a contextual reading of youth trauma stories to strengthen resilience and reduce risk factors.

The prevalence of trauma in female sex offenders is now recognized. Kelman and Sutcliffe report on the compassionate work experience and strengths of female sex offenders by considering the scientific knowledge of trauma that informs this specific audience’s behaviours, needs, and journeys.

A humanist reading for effective practices
I recommend this book for all students, researchers and professionals confronted with sexual crime. Nonetheless, ACE chapters and studies more generally now show us that trauma is a public health issue. Finally, criminology is a source of social behaviour and human conduct. Indeed, after the reading of this book, I think that the criminological paradigm concerns the way to react criminally. But since aggressive behaviour is at the root of ACE and ACE is intertwined with criminogenic risk factors, criminology is everyone’s interest. Dealing with sexual offenders taking trauma into account means reconsidering the public place given to humans in society. Scientific evidence coupled with listening to the needs of clients and the well-being of professionals is essential keys to a peaceful social life far from trauma and crime.

This is an interesting update of the scientific literature for the researchers, putting the advances in scientific evidence directly into practice. However, the book is technical. Authors do not hesitate to work seriously; it is not accessible to a lay audience on the matter. For professionals, I recommend reading the chapters that will directly target your practice (see the methods used, the impact on your team and yourself). Also, I advise you to read the questions surrounding the strategies aimed at applying the scientific recommendations.

DR. ERWAN DIEU
GENERAL DIRECTOR, SERVICE OF CRIMINOLOGY (ARCA)
FRANCE

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