The Past, Present and Future of Education Programs for Individuals Who Sexually Offend

The Past, Present and Future of Education Programs for Individuals Who Sexually Offend

Sex offender treatment programs derive from a well-established history of research endeavours to produce theoretical explanations for human sexual behaviour, both conventional and deviant (Benkert; Patze; Maudsley; Moll; von Krafft-Ebing; Westphal cited in Laws & Marshall, 2003). Like Rodger Benefiel’s chapter in this collection, this chapter situates sex offender treatment programs within the field of education, doing so in response to the eclectic understanding of education that defines this current collection, but also where across the collection education is given methodological cohesion by core attributes including redeeming and rehabilitating. In the area of carceral education, sex offender treatment is indeed a critical area to include in any broader collection on or study of education in prisons. These programs are a major instructional and educational undertaking in many prisons, they are based on theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, and they are anti-recidivist. Studies of human sexuality date back to the mid-late 1800’s with the work of Sigmund Freud (include date: (1905 cited in Strachey 1976)), who is now considered the ‘father of the study of human sexuality’ (Laws & Marshall, 2003, p. 76), and one of the pioneers in this area of research. However, Freud was not the first to study both conventional and deviant human sexuality, even though his work is perhaps the most widely known. Treatment for sexual behaviours regarded as deviant date back to the work of Charcot and Magnan (cited in Laws & Marshall, 2003) and Schrenk-Notzig (cited in Laws & Marshall, 2003) and their treatment of homosexuality, regarded at that time as a deviant sexual orientation.

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