This theme is occasioned by the fact that many sex offenders are being turned away from psychiatric hospitals to be treated in open community centers. An overview of treatment techniques describes and assesses the variety of approaches that can be used to treat sex offenders in social work and mental health settings. Another paper evaluates scientific evidence for and against mentally retarded persons' increased risk of committing sex offenses. Treatment strategies for such offenders are also described. An evaluation of the treatment of sex offenders in a community mental health center focuses on sex offender characteristics, dangerousness, cultural influences, and typologies of sex crimes. Results are reported from a self-administered questionnaire completed in a self-help group of incest families; the questionnaire focused on individual family members' perceptions of their interrelationships before and after therapy. Other papers address family-centered casework practice with sexually aggressive children, child protective service workers' ratings of likely emotional trauma for child sexual abuse victims, and a cognitive-behavioral model for treatment of the rapist and child molester. Chapter references, subject index.