NCJ Number
153907
Journal
Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1995) Pages: 85-106
Date Published
1995
Length
22 pages
Annotation
An exit examination was devised to measure retention of knowledge gained by sex offenders during the course of a community-based treatment program.
Abstract
Sexual offender treatment has a key educational as well as therapeutic component. The exit examination was designed to determine what knowledge was retained by the treatment participant at the completion of one program phase. The exit examination, which signifies transition from a 3-hour-per-week, 2-year therapy program to a once-per-month follow-up program, was structured to sample the domain of the offender's new learning. The sample was culled from elements of six major topic categories: relationships, judgment, understanding of feelings, identification of appropriate and inappropriate control techniques, recognition of damage done by victimizing behaviors, and recognition of patterns of deviance. The examination was designed to provide the therapist with an understanding of how much information was supplied to and retained by the offender. In addition, two other topic categories -- thinking errors and tactics to avoid change -- were addressed in their entirety in the examination because of their importance in providing an external view of the offender's recognition and recall of his ways of thinking that contributed to his deviance. Appended examination questions, 2 figures, and 29 references