NCJ Number
128722
Date Published
1985
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Cognitive approaches, as used at the Closed Adolescent Treatment Center in Denver, Colo., help adolescent sexual offenders to gain control of their behaviors and break the cycle that issues in sexually abusive behavior.
Abstract
Prior to introducing cognitive therapy at the Center, one of the striking deficits observed in the youths was their inability to sustain behavioral changes during stressful periods. The youths also reported feeling incapable of controlling their urges to rape once thoughts of it entered their minds. Cognitive therapy aims at objectifying the cycle of events, offender perceptions of and reactions to events, and subsequent sexually abusive behaviors. The intent is that through awareness of this cycle and methods of "short-circuiting" it, the juvenile can restrain himself from acting out victimizing behaviors. Youths have reported they often desired to rape someone after an upsetting interpersonal experience that stimulated in them a perception or feeling of helplessness, insecurity, or isolation. Rape thoughts then enter their minds, followed by a rationalizing process that gives the person permission for such behavior; and then the planning, stalking of the victim, and the rape completes the process giving the perpetrator a sense of power and satisfaction. Through the recording of feelings and perceptions in daily journals, the identification of fantasy patterns, and the implementation of a decisionmaking model that teaches offenders how to stop destructive behavioral cycles, cognitive therapy can help sexual offenders control their behavior under stress.