Using Pretreatment To Increase Admission in Sex Offenders (From Sex Offender: New Insights, Treatment Innovations and Legal Developments, Volume II, P 5-1 to 5-16, 1997, Barbara K. Schwartz and Henry R. Cellini, eds. - See NCJ-167745)

• NCJ Number: 167749
• Author(s): S C Brake; D Shannon
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Civic Research Institute, Inc
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

The difficult problems that sex offenders in denial pose for those involved in their treatment and management can be addressed with some success using a pretreatment program with six stages.

Abstract

Sex offenders who are particularly resistant to treatment do not relinquish their denial quickly enough to be accepted into standard offense-specific group treatment programs. However, specialized pretreatment programs that focus on lessening denial can decrease resistance and denial in a significant number of these offenders. After this pretreatment, these offenders can enter offense-specific group programs. Each of the six stages of pretreatment consists of a series of strategies or interventions designed to lessen denial. The interventions are offered in weekly, individual counseling sessions rather than in therapy groups. The six stages are called (1) containment, (2) symptom relief, (3) reframe denial, (4) reframe accountability, (5) model empathy, and (6) successive approximation of confrontation. The authors have chosen to work with offenders in denial for 6 months and terminate those who display little change in denial or resistance after that amount of time. Tables and 41 references