Legally there is no commonly accepted definition of a sex offender, since jurisdictions define sexual assault in a variety of ways; these definitions typically differ on such issues as consent, ages of the parties and age differences when minors are involved, marital or cohabiting relationship, and degree of force or coercion when victims are acquainted with offenders. When viewed from a mental health perspective, there are distinctions among sexual deviations. Most sexual deviations come under the heading of paraphilias, and when the offense involves an adult perpetrator and a child victim, the subheading is pedophilia. The deviations are further distinguished by gender preference. These distinctions are important in the development of diagnostic and treatment services. In a climate of public concern about sex offenses, legislators have enacted laws call "sexually violent predator statutes." These laws allow for the civil commitment of sexually violent predators after they have completed prison terms for as long as it takes to eliminate the risk of recidivism. To date, there is not sufficient data to indicate whether these civil commitment laws actually decrease recidivism rates after release. Another public policy regarding sex offenders pertains to registries, which is a policy that requires a convicted sex offender to register with local authorities, with the register being accessible to the public. The overview of the articles in this volume notes that they first discuss some of the aforementioned controversial public policies toward sex offenders, followed by consideration of the assessment of sex offenders. Treatment options for sex offenders are also discussed. 62 references