Psychiatric and Social Care of Sex Offenders in Prison: Risk Management and the Fight against Recidivism

Using the approach of the “new penology,” this paper analyzes the evolution of the psychiatric and social care sex offenders receive in prisons. Like social care and rehabilitation, psychotherapeutic treatment is shifting toward psycho-social-educational support using cognitive behavioral techniques, which are based on a pragmatic perspective of risk management and reducing recidivism. While this shift concerns numerous professionals, the spread of these new techniques raises questions about some of the basic paradoxes of these therapeutic approaches.