Reviews : Bizarre Behaviours Herschel Prins Routledge, 1990; pp 111; £9.99 pbk
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059103800311 |
| Author | Nigel Stone |
| Date | 01 September 1991 |
| Published date | 01 September 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
141
REVIEWS
Comments,
contributions
and
sugges-
tions
to
The
Editor,
c/o
Probation
Office,
Whitefriars,
Norwich
NR3
1TN
Tackling
Denial
in
Sex
Offenders
Bryan
Gocke
Social
Work
Monographs,
1991,
UEA,
£4.50
pbk
Articles,
dissertations,
books
and
monographs
which
contain
the
words
’tackle’,
’denial’
and
’sex
offender’
in
the
title
are
rather
thick
on
the
ground
these
days,
but
this
need
not
divert
us
from
Bryan
Gocke’s
imaginative
efforts.
Gocke’s
concerns
are
with
a
socie-
ty
based
upon
patriarchy
which
throws
up
sex
offenders
and
then,
with
due
hypocrisy,
celebrates
their
status
as
monsters.
It is
the
same
process,
but
more
subtle,
as
the
Sun’s
displays
of
naked
women
on
page
3
and
rape
trials
on
page
2.
The
inadequacies
of
traditional
theories
of
deviant
sexual
interest
are
pointed
out;
family
therapy,
behaviourist
and
psychotheraputic
ex-
planations
come
in
for
some
swift
and
ritual
theory
abuse.
More
productive-
ly,
Gocke
moves
on
to
an
exposition
of
what
are
now
seminal
texts
by
Finkelhor,
Salter
and
the
’addictive
cy-
cle’
school.
The
core
of
Gocke’s
study
is
a
retrospective
investigation
of
the
ex-
periences
of
six
convicted
and
sentenc-
ed
offenders
(two
of
whom
are
mentally
ill)
during
their
progress
through
the
criminal
justice
system.
The
conclusion
is
that,
by
a
variety
of
processes,
the
system
reinforces
those
denial
mechanisms
which
have
’fuell-
ed
and
maintained
the
(sexual)
compul-
sion’.
Sex
offenders
have
little
to
gain
and
nothing
to
lose
by
minimising
their
offending,
and
a
system
based
upon
mitigation-fed
rewards
and
honesty-fed
punishments
does
little
to
help.
The
main
weakness
of
Gocke’s
prescriptions
for
dealing
with
in-
dividual
manifestations
of
denial
is
that
they
rest
entirely
upon
confrontative
techniques
which
have
to
be
’threaten-
ing
and
painful’
when
an
earlier
con-
cern
had
been
that
offenders’
threatening
and
painful
experiences
at
the
hands
of
other
prisoners
are
deeemed
counterproductive.
The
strength
of
Gocke’s
argument
lies
in
his
insistence
on
our
walldng
the
tightrope
between
collusion
and
scapegoating;
if
we
are
honest,
we
have
to
admit
to
the
temptation
to
lean
one
way
or
the
other.
Michael
Sheath
Probation
Officer,
Worcester
Bizarre
Behaviours
Herschel
Prins
Routledge,
1990;
pp
111;
£9.99
pbk
Puzzled
but
intrigued
by
the
be-
havioural
traits
of
Hannibal
the
Cannibal
in
The
Silence
of
the
Lambs,
I
turned
to
Prins,
for
aetiological
nourishment.
I’m
still
none
too
clear
about
Dr
Lecter but
I
now
know
rather
more
about
Kotzewarra
states
(erotic-
ised
repetitive
hanging),
Koro
syn-
drome
(shrinking
penis
obsessions),
Necrophagia
and
Lycanthropy
(belief
one
is
a
werewolf,
though
in
some
cases
the
possessing
animal
has
been
a
gerbil,
presumably
where
the
sufferer
is
also
an
under-achiever).
Inevitably
such
a
brief
and
some-
what
arbitrary
Cooks
tour
of
the
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