Table 2: Sex offender treatment goals - national task force report supporting community safety.

1. Acceptance of responsibility for behavior without minimization or externalizing blame.

2. Identification of pattern or cycle of abusive behavior.

3. Interruption of cycle before abusive behavior occurs and control of behavior.

4. Resolution of victimization in the history of the abusive youth (i.e., sexual abuse, sexual trauma, physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, rejection, loss, etc.).

5. Development of victim awareness/empathy to a point where potential victims are seen as people rather than objects.

6. Development of an internal sense of mastery and control.

7. Understanding the role of sexual arousal in sexually abusive behavior, reduction of deviant sexual arousal, definition of non-abusive sexual fantasy.

8. Development of positive sexual fantasy.

9. Understanding the consequences of offending behavior for the self, the victim, and their families in addition to developing victim empathy.

10. Identification (and remediation to the extent possible) of family issues or dysfunctions which support or trigger offending: attachment disorders and boundary problems in families.

11. Identification of cognitive distortions, irrational thinking or thinking errors which support or trigger offending.

12. Identification and expression of feelings.

13. Development of pro-social relationships with peers.

14. Development of realistic levels of trust in relating to adults.

15. Management of addictive/compulsive qualities contributing to reinforcement of deviancy.

16. Remediation of developmental delays/development of competent psychological health skills.

17. Resolutions of substance abuse and/or gang involvement.

18. Reconciliation of cross-cultural issues.

19. Management of concurrent psychiatric disorders.

20. Remediation of skill deficits which interfere with successful functioning.

21. Development of relapse prevention strategies.

22. Restitution/reparation to victims and community.

Note: Adapted from Underwood & Berenson, 2001 [8].