Sex Offender Rehabilitation

Paper Summary:

The literature review presented in this paper, focuses primarily on the historical origins of using victims in sex offender treatment programs. The paper further explores the nature of empathy, guilt and shame and the relationships shared among each of these variables. The intent of the review is to provide valuable feedback related to the efficacy of concurrently using each of these variables in treatment programs geared toward sex offenders.

Outline:
Introduction
Historical Overview Using Victims In Sex Offense Rehabilitation
Theories of Empathy
Theories of Guilt and Shame
Relationship of Guilt/Shame and Empathy: Effects on Intervention
Concurrent Use of Empathy, Guilt and Shame in Therapeutic Intervention
Literature Review Summary
Discussions/Conclusions
References

From the Paper:

"Guilt and shame are often intimately tied to criminal acts involving sex offenses. There is a body of research suggesting that the presence of guilt and shame among sex offenders may inhibit any efforts toward building empathy within the scope of a rehabilitative treatment program. Kubany & Watson (2003) for example suggest that the construct of guilt has received relatively little attention from researchers but may have a negative impact on programs designed to help build empathy among sex offenders. They propose a multi-dimensional model to measure the magnitude of guilt one may experience after a negative event, suggesting that the more guilt a sex offender feels the more likely the guilt is to affect their ability or capacity to express empathy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beckett, R.C. & Fisher, D. (1994). "Assessing victim empathy: A new measure." Paper presented at 13th Conference of the Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers: San Francisco.
• Carich, M.S., Metzger, CK., Baig, M.S. & Harper, J.J. (2004). "Enhancing victim empathy for sex offenders." Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 12(3-4): 1053.
• Coleman, E., Miner, M., Ohlerking, F. & Raymond, N. (2001). "Compulsive sexual behavior inventory: A preliminary study of reliability and validity." Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 27(1): 325-332.
• CSOM. (2001, May). "Recidivism of sex offenders." Center for Sex Offender Management. http://www.csom.org/pubs/recidsexof.pdf
• Davis, M.H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Madison: Westview Press.

More papers on Sex Offender Rehabilitation:

• Persuasive Essay # 119508 : "The Sex Offender Registry"
• Research Proposal # 93364 : "Sex Offender Treatment"
• Research Paper # 120425 : "Sex Offenders"

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