The anthology The Hidden World of the Sex Offender: Readings on Sex Crimes and the Criminal Justice System gives readers insight into the hidden world of the sex offender. This carefully curated selection of readings examines deviant sexual behaviors from historical and geographical perspectives, and discusses how some of them were not only permitted, but encouraged in certain societies and eras.

Students learn about types of sex offenders and differences between nuisance sex offenders and dangerous sex criminals. Specific chapters are devoted to the characteristics of offenders, aberrant forms of sexual behavior, paraphilias, pedophilia, child pornography, and cyber-predators, and sex trafficking. Most notable is the text’s attention to the often overlooked topics of female sex offenders and the forms, extent, victimology, and future of male prostitution.

The Hidden World of the Sex Offender asks students to thoughtfully consider issues such as the role of fantasy in aberrant forms of behavior, and how both ritualism and symbolism play integral parts in sexual practice. The anthology can be used in courses in sex crimes and sexual deviancy, and those devoted to how the criminal justice system deal with them.

Stephen Holmes, who earned his Ph.D. in criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati, is an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. He has numerous book chapters, books, and articles to his name. Dr. Holmes’s most recent book is Violence in the United States.

Ronald Holmes is an emeritus professor in the Department of Justice Administration at the University of Louisville, and a world-renowned author and expert on serial murder, sex crimes, and criminal profiling. He received his doctorate from Indiana University and has completed more than five hundred psychological profiles for police departments across the United States.