Orlando Sex Offender Therapy

For those convicted of sex crimes, probation with mandated treatment along with some jail time is a common disposition.  The major goal of treatment for sex offenders is the prevention of sexual offenses in the future.  However, until recently there has been little evidence that treatment reduces recidivism.  The type of treatment which is most likely to succeed is an individually-tailored approach that includes careful assessment and uses a broad mix of cognitive-behavioral techniques to support individual behavior change.  There is little evidence for the effectiveness of many commonly-used treatment approaches.
  

Psychotherapy is often ordered for child sexual abuse perpetrators.  Of possible treatment modalities, the most common approach has been group therapy that relies heavily upon punitive and hostile confrontation and a nonsystematic blend of psychoanalytic concepts and traditional talking therapy.  There is often little or no effort to provide a theoretical base for the program.  The result is a procedure that is essentially highly moralistic and reflects the judgmental emotional response of the society rather than an empirically-based healing technique.

 

Treating people with disordered behavior patterns as morally defective and requiring a change in moral commitments has a long history (Siegler & Osmond, 1974).  However, moral treatments, such as those currently vended for perpetrators of child sexual abuse, should be labeled for what they are.  It is professionally irresponsible to call a procedure therapy, implying it is value free, when, in fact, it is based upon moral values and pursues goals defined moralistically.

 

Psychotherapy is a venture much studied and researched and there is an extensive literature on psychotherapy processes and outcomes.  There is sufficient information to have some understanding of what may actually work to change behavior. The scientific knowledge available permits more than an educated guess or a trial and error methodology. 

 

The effectiveness of therapeutic treatment is often measured by its contribution to restoration of emotional health and normal functioning along with the subjective sense of well-being of the individual.  Normal behavior may be defined either by reference to the applicable social norms or by statistical frequency.  With treatment for a person guilty of child sexual abuse the essential goal is the prevention of sexual offenses in the future.  Subjective well-being or conformity to generally accepted norms in other areas is not sufficient to measure treatment outcomes.

 

 

For more information on Sex Offender Therapy please contact Psychological Affiliates at 407-740-6838 or this form.