NCJ Number
150897
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This paper describes the use of repertory grids to assess changes in a group of eight men who attended a community group for child sex offenders.
Abstract
The group convened for 6 months, with 24 weekly 2-hour sessions. The men were between 30 and 51 years of age, six were employed, none had a history of mental illness, and two had previous convictions for offenses against children. Group sessions were designed to provide cognitive-behavioral treatment and to reduce reoffending behavior by challenging cognitive distortions about adults and children, increasing the men's awareness of the effects of sex offenses on victims, and improving social skills and sexual education. After 6 months of group treatment, changes were observed in the men on several different measures from the repertory grids. For every group member except one, at least one of the following supplied constructs represented important discriminators: easily or not easily controlled by others, domineering or not domineering, and sexually or not sexually provocative. Three men showed positive changes in their ratings of victims, seeing them as generally less sexually provocative and more easily controlled by others. Two men exhibited an increase in their self-esteem over the 6-month period. 7 references and 4 figures