Impact of relapse prevention in treating sex offenders: Preliminary findings

This paper presents preliminary findings from the first 50 treatment cases and 48 volunteer controls released by California's Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project (SOTEP). Participants receiving a comprehensive Relapse Prevention intervention showed significant changes in their willingness to accept responsibility for their deviant sexual behavior (measured by the Multiphasic Sex Inventory), and for their life circumstances in general (measured by certain scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Carlson Psychological Survey, and two measures of Locus of Control). Treatment cases also showed significantly less deviant sexual arousal at release, and more ability to cope with possible high risk situations. Treated participants showed less cognitive distortions and justifications for their sexual behavior at release than volunteer controls, and less post-release criminal activity than either these controls or a third group of men who did not volunteer for SOTEP.