NCJ Number
243107
Date Published
2011
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents a developmental approach to how a sexual offender experiences his emotional world, and implications are drawn for treatment.
Abstract
Most therapists who have spent years working with sexual offenders recognize that an offender's childhood emotional development was deprived, disruptive, and traumatic, often leading to dependency, pleasure-seeking, limited self-reflective capacity, and self-centeredness. Emotionally, the sex offender is limited, often capable of only the primary emotions of "mad, bad, sad, or glad." Sexual response and role performance are deeply enmeshed to the point that he views himself only in relation to his sexual performance. Moral development has rarely progressed to understanding boundaries and limits that are contrary to his emotional or sexual needs. Reworking the stages of emotional development becomes part of the complex treatment needs of the sex offender. Specific issues discussed in the chapter regarding childhood developmental stages for sexual offenders are the influence of trauma, the internalization of shame, and self-actualization versus emotional impoverishment. The chapter's section on the treatment of sex offenders focuses on the identification of feelings, and the encouragement of healthy functioning. The chapter advises that if treatment enables the offender to understand and change how he misinterprets his emotions and establish new behavioral patterns, he will improve his chance of maintaining behavioral control over the long term. 48 references