NCJ Number
193626
Journal
Journal of Sexual Aggression Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 2001 Pages: 25-40
Date Published
2001
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article examines the attitudes of child sexual abusers and outlines an innovative way of structuring the treatment of cognitive distortions based on the concept of implicit theories.
Abstract
Standard treatment of cognitive distortions aims to address a large range of unconnected and individual cognitions and does provide a conceptual framework to aid clinicians’ interventions. A taxonomy that organizes offenders’ cognitive distortions into distinct thematic clusters and helps clinicians structure their interventions could aid the implementation of these approaches. The implicit-theory approach regards cognitive distortions as deriving from a smaller number of more general maladaptive underlying beliefs about offenders themselves, their victims, and the world in general. These underlying beliefs become the target of intervention. Therapeutic interventions based on this approach involve four steps: (1) identifying cognitive distortions; (2) reframing cognitive distortions as implicit theories; (3) challenging, disconfirming, and replacing cognitive distortions; and (4) a review of the strategies and results by participants and clinicians. The analysis concludes that further research should empirically evaluate this treatment approach and determine whether it truly benefits offenders and clinicians. 26 references