Victim Issues Are Key to Effective Sex Offender Treatment

The recent passage of Sexually Violent Predator laws in several states has increased interest in identifying those sex offenders most likely to re-offend and changeable or dynamic factors that can be most effectively addressed in treatment in order to reduce sex offender recidivism. Hanson and his colleagues have identified the following as promising stable dynamic factors: intimacy deficits, negative peer influences, attitudes tolerant of sexual offending, problems with emotional/sexual self-regulation, and general self-regulation. On the basis of 25 years experience treating sex offenders, as well as the growing literature on the effects of early trauma on the development of the brain, the author explores the relationships among these factors and the long-term effects of child abuse.