Book excerpt: This "Essential Handbook" provides the critical elements from its companion volume, the successful Handbook of Offender Assessment and Treatment. A comprehensive review of assessment and treatment, it covers the major offender groups: sex offenders, violent offenders, offenders with mental and personality disorders, and property offenders. A range of treatment approaches are also included, incorporating behavioural, cognitive, skills-based, anger management, school programs, and family-based approaches. Whilst retaining its international, high quality appeal, The Essential Handbook of Offender Assessment and Treatment is a concise, portable edition for all clinicians, academics and researchers working with offenders across a range of settings.