The challenge of viewing sexual offenders as both perpetrators and victims 1

Evaluating sex offenders’ risk for sexually reoffending involves unique psychological challenges. It forces us to grapple with a difficult task, described by F. Scott Fitzgerald as the “ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function,” which Fitzgerald referred to as “the test of a first-rate intelligence” (Fitzgerald, 1936). Evaluating sexual offenders is complex and challenging precisely because it requires the ability to experience opposite feelings and perceptions toward the same person, in this case, the offender himself.