It is only recently that any attention has been paid to females who commit sex offences, and knowledge of this population is limited. This edited book provides a snapshot of the current literature and would be useful to clinicians and researchers interested in this population. Saradjian's chapter provides a review of prevalence rates which, across studies, is 4%–5% and outlines many of the factors that may impact the accuracy of these rates. In victimisation studies it is of interest that male victims report more often being abused by females than do female victims. This chapter also reviews victim impact. Some of the statements made, such as: ‘For victims of female sexual abusers, the trauma will be greater as it is so unexpected that women will behave in this way’ (p.21) seem to go beyond the data. Many of the studies and case examples presented are related to abuse by mother figures, which may have a very different impact than when the victim is an adolescent male and the offender is an adult female. Chapter 3 by Harris focuses on theories of female sex offending. It provides an overview of clinical typologies, single factor theories such as victimisation and a review of the more complex ‘Descriptive Model of Female Sex Offending’ developed by Theresa Gannon. Harris, drawing from the feminist criminological literature, suggests powerlessness as a possible theoretical explanation for female sex offending; although page limitations may not have allowed her to fully develop the concept. Frey provides a helpful overview of what we know about juvenile female sex offenders in her chapter. The Rousseau and Cortoni chapter on mental health issues highlights some of the problems in the overall literature on female sex offenders. Highly selected samples, lack of standardised assessment and not having adequate control groups can give a distorted view of the prevalence of mental health issues in this population. Regardless of the actual prevalence it is clear, that like general offenders, female sex offenders have experienced significant victimisation. Cortoni's chapter on assessment provides practical information for clinicians. There is also a review of Cortoni and associates' recidivism meta-analysis suggesting low (2%–3%) sexual recidivism in this population. Risk assessment instruments validated on females do not exist. Cortoni outlines what factors may be similar to those for men and what may be different. They stress the need to assess general criminogenic risk factors; but do not discuss controversy regarding gender-neutral versus gender-informed risk factors in the prediction of general offending. The chapter by Heil and colleagues suggests that female offenders, like male offenders, report more extensive histories of offending after being polygraphed. They also present data that after polygraphs, some women who are identified as offending with a male also report solo offending. Although presenting some interesting data, there is no acknowledgement of research that questions the validity of polygraph testing. Three of the chapters focus on treatment-related issues: Chapter 7 by Ford, on treatment needs; Chapter 8, a review of treatment initiatives by Blanchette and Taylor; and Chapter 10 on therapeutic process issues by Ashfield and colleagues. All the chapters stress the need for treatment to be gender informed and the need for the field to not automatically apply what we know about female offenders to male offenders, which is a theme throughout this book. However, from the literature and programmes reviewed, this is more an aspirational goal than what the field has achieved. The chapter by Ashfield and colleagues stresses the importance of the therapeutic relationship in treating this population. It goes beyond identifying specific dynamic risk factors and identifies issues specific to women, such as trauma, relationships, children and the difficulties of community integration. The final chapter by Gannon, Rose and Cortoni focuses on future directions. This includes more theoretically-driven studies, development of female-specific assessment instruments and studies with adequate control groups. In summary, although in any edited book one can probably find areas to critique, the overall book is valuable for those working in this field and provides a good introduction to what we know at this time.

The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), an international voluntary membership organization, has published for its members the document, "Practice Standards and Guidelines for the Evaluation, Treatment, and Management of Adult Male Sexual Abusers." The "standards" in the document detail ATSA membership requirements and ethical behavior that members must follow. The "guidelines" are recommended best practices for delivering services to this population. This commentary outlines the process and evidence base used to developed these standards and guidelines.

The paper explores how computer mediated communication can be used to effectively promote critical thinking skills among online learners in higher education. Critical thinking is a process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing and constructing information to become one's own knowledge. The effective use of a new technology needs to be related to how learners learn. This paper attempts to examine the learning theory underlying computer mediated communication and discusses cognitivism, collaborative learning, constructivism and situated learning. The latest technologies in computer mediated communication are investigated further by identifying the potential as learning tools. The definition of internalization may throw light on the key question of this study. Finally, we conceptualize the idea that computer mediated communication could promote critical thinking among, learners through internalization within a community of learners.

PurposeTo deepen the understanding and to encourage further research on leadership best practices for sustaining quality improvement in UK higher education institutions (HEIs).Design/methodology/approachThe literature on leadership provides the theoretical context for the survey of quality managers from 42 UK HEIs. A mix of questionnaires, interviews, and hypothesis testing, was used to explore the critical factors for effective leadership and to obtain descriptive accounts of leadership best practices, which led to the development of a conceptual framework for effective leadership for academic quality.FindingsIdentifies and categorizes leadership practices into “weak”, “good”, “best”, and “excellent” on the basis of efficiency and effectiveness of each practice in sustaining academic quality improvement. It provides a conceptual framework for improving “weak” leadership practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe exact nature of the association between “effective leadership” and sustainable “levels of academic quality improvement” has not been explained. This requires further research. International generalization of the findings would require the sample size of 42 UK HEIs to be extended to include institutions from other countries with similar education systems – such as the USA and Australia.Practical implicationsAcademic quality planners will become more aware of the need to improve the tasks and activities constituting leadership processes. The emphasis on a structured approach to self‐assessment of leadership performance has the potential to reverse the ranking of leadership second to processes in UK HEIs.Originality/valueIt provides explicit definitions of “weak”, “good”, “best” and “excellent” leadership practices, which UK HEIs adopting the excellence model developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) may find useful in the assessment and improvement of leadership performance towards academic excellence.

The overall aim of this paper is to deepen the understanding of forming and effectively managing university incubators in the UK. Recognizing that the term ‘business incubator’ embraces a wide range of institutions, all of which aim to foster the creation and development of enterprises – SMEs or corporate ventures – by established organizations, the formation of different types of university incubators is explored from the perspective of the incubator managers who are involved in the process. Four case studies are presented, which show how the incubator managers discern incubation practices within the current UK system of business incubation and develop their particular programmes. The case studies are constructed by generating in-depth case material through interviews with the incubator managers, participant observation in one setting, and documentary search during 2002 and the first half of 2003. Evaluating the contextual constraints and opportunities in the UK, it is illustrated that the contextual issues are by their nature complex, dynamic and diverse, and they are also central to understanding the way the incubation programmes are shaped and reshaped over time. Some core ideas and lessons have been drawn from the research and it is hoped that they can help incubation community members to re-evaluate their own experiences and assist public policy makers in gauging their policies.

Phallometric studies suggest that some adolescent sex offenders exhibit anomalous sexual interests. However, there have been ethical and practical objections to the phallometric testing of adolescents. Alternative measures may be needed if we are to understand the role of anomalous sexual interests in adolescent sexual offending. The Screening Scale for Pedophilic Interests (SSPI) was designed as a brief measure of pedophilic interests based on sexual offense history variables: any male victims, more than one victim, any victims under age 12, and any unrelated victims. Score on the SSPI is significantly and positively correlated with phallometrically measured pedophilic interests among adult offenders against children. In this study, the SSPI was scored in three samples of adolescent sex offenders who underwent phallometric testing for pedophilic interests. Scores on the SSPI were positively correlated with a phallometric index of relative sexual arousal to children in all three samples. This relationship was strongest using visual stimuli. The positive relationship between SSPI scores and pedophilic responding held up despite the use of different penile measures, stimulus sets, procedures, and scoring methods. The usefulness of the SSPI as a proxy measure among adolescents is discussed.

This meta-analytic review examined the effectiveness of psychological treatment for sex offenders by summarizing data from 43 studies (combined n = 9,454). Averaged across all studies, the sexual offence recidivism rate was lower for the treatment groups (12.3%) than the comparison groups (16.8%, 38 studies, unweighted average). A similar pattern was found for general recidivism, although the overall rates were predictably higher (treatment 27.9%, comparison 39.2%, 30 studies). Current treatments (cognitive–behavioral, k = 13; systemic, k = 2) were associated with reductions in both sexual recidivism (from 17.4 to 9.9%) and general recidivism (from 51 to 32%). Older forms of treatment (operating prior to 1980) appeared to have little effect. Future directions for improving the quality of sex offender treatment outcome evaluations are discussed.

To date, there has been limited literature on the measurement of sexual arousal in adolescent sex offenders. The data that exist have been somewhat mixed in terms of factors related to deviant sexual arousal in this group. The present study, with 71 adolescent sex offenders, investigates the relationship between offender and offense characteristics, including gender of victim, history of sexual abuse, history of physical abuse, race, and interactions between these factors in the prediction of physiologically measured sexual arousal to deviant and nondeviant stimulus categories. A number of variables significantly predicted sexual arousal. The most consistent predictors were gender of victim, race, the interaction of race and gender of victim, and to some extent the interaction of offender abuse history and gender of victim. Caucasian subjects tended to respond more than African American subjects did, and this has not been reported previously in the literature. The data are discussed in terms of consistency with other literature, suggesting that those juvenile offenders who target male victims and have been abused themselves may be a high risk group. Limitations of this study are also addressed.