Consideration of three arenas of social control for the treatment and management of sexual offenders

This paper sets out to explore the influences of social control upon the discourse relating to treatment and management of sexual offenders. This discussion takes as its foci three environmental arenas (social, penal/judicial and health care), and examines their influences and culpability within this context. It is not the intention of this article to present, nor does it arrive at, any answers to the perpetual concerns of treatment and management of this offender group, preferring to leave it to the individual reader to draw their own conclusions. It is accepted that there is no gender demarcation amongst sexual offenders, though in this paper, the masculine tense is used.