Cognitive Approaches to the Assessment of Sexual Interest in Sexual Offenders

David Thornton is the treatment director for Wisconsin’s program for sexually violent persons, and an Adjunct Professor in the department of Clinical Psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is co-author of STATIC-99, the most widely used risk assessment instrument for sexual offenders in the world, and also of Risk Matrix 2000, the commonly used risk assessment instrument in the United Kingdom. He currently serves on the editorial board of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, and is a member of the Executive Board of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.  D. Richard Laws is co-director of the Pacific Psychological Assessment Corporation in Victoria, BC, Canada. He is an adjunct faculty member at Simon Fraser University and the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr. Laws is known in the research field of sexual deviance primarily for his development of assessment procedures. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Journal of Sexual Aggression, Journal of Interpersonal Violence and Legal and Criminological Psychology.

"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)

• 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.