Welcome to the summer 2017 issue of the Forum. Here is your perfect summer reading for by the beach or at the cottage. As usual you will find columns from our students, committee updates, and the FAQ piece addressing the question, “Is pornography use safe for those convicted of a sexual offence?” Of course, this is all in addition to our featured articles on relevant research applications and practical clinical tools for those working with both adults and youth.

This issue features a follow-up to an article on prosocial reasoning you read in our Spring issue. In the previous piece Norbert Ralph made the argument that prosocial reasoning is an important consideration when working with adolescents who have sexually offended. In this article he delves into treatment to enhance prosocial reasoning as a stand-alone intervention or as a positive byproduct of other tried and true treatments.

In our next feature, Chantal Hermann considers how evaluation of sexual aggression has long been discussed as an important component of the decision to commit sexual violence. Despite various conceptualizations, the cognitive processes underlying sexual offending continue to present new questions. The author reviews her work on explicit and implicit evaluations of sexual aggression as a potential predictor of future sexual offending behaviour with some interesting results and more new questions.

Finally, we know that effective risk management is dependent upon sound risk assessment and comprehensive risk formulation. In his article, Sébastien Prat discusses his research in France that aimed to explore the trajectories of individuals convicted for child pornography offences. Specifically, he considers various typologies proposed, and his own interest in predicting outcomes for this group, given the challenges with anticipating specific risk outcomes, such as escalation in offending from hands-off or online offences to hands-on offences. In this article he makes the case for risk assessment within clinical risk formulation so as to improve the management of this group.

From his award winning research, Franklyn Graham, shares with us his doctoral thesis work on hypersexuality and psychopathy. His work points to some interesting neurobiological deficits that show promise as markers in the assessment and potential points of intervention for those at highest risk.

Our ATSA committees are busy as ever and included some updates for members in this issue. The Membership committee would like to remind you to nominate eligible colleagues for the ATSA Fellow designation. You will find the criteria and nomination process in this issue for the September 1, 2017 deadline. Also, the International committee provides an update on changes to the committee and its membership.

I hope you enjoy this issue of the Forum. As always, I look forward to reading your articles and I am happy to work with you on developing ideas for a Forum piece. 

Enjoy your summer.

Heather M. Moulden
ATSA Forum Editor