Abstract

issue of the Journal focuses specifically on the theme of young people with abusive sexual behaviours. The idea for such a special issue came initially from our joint involvement in the second biennial conference of the Eur-opean Society working with Sexually Abusive Youth (ESSAY) entitled ‘European perspec-tives on young people who sexually abuse; the individual, the family and the network ’ which was held in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from 23rd to 25th May 2005. The diversity of presentations at the ESSAY conference, as well as the sheer energy and commitment of those practitioners and researchers participat-ing at this event, encouraged us to think about