ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that some difficulties working with sexual offenders follow from treating them as if they are a homogenous group, rather than recognising systematic individual differences in personality and individual psychopathology that shape the trajectory of subsequent criminal careers and putative rehabilitation. It presents a brief review of the overlapping concepts of obsessionality, sexual addiction, hypersexuality and sexual preoccupation, exploring how these concepts relate to sexual offending and subsequent treatment. Sexual compulsivity is seen in individuals who engage in recreational sex and occurs across the range of sexual communities. Further issues to consider when examining whether an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) model is helpful for understanding sexual offenders are whether a behaviour is impulsive or compulsive and whether clients perceive their behaviour to be part of their identity. The latest behavioural addiction is uncontrolled use of the Internet and social media, which is now also the main medium for pornography.
