Assessment and Modification of Cognitive Distortions in Sex Offenders

Contextual Control over the Derived Transformation of Discriminative and Sexual Arousal Functions

“…In the treatment of a rapist, for example, a therapist might use a cognitive relabeling strategy to undermine the offender's view of women as "needing to be controlled." One dramatic way in which this has been achieved in the past is by confronting rapists with rape victims in a nonsexual clinical setting (e.g., Murphy, 1990). From a behavioral point of view, this confrontation has the effect that the rape victim shifts from a frame of coordination perhaps containing "submission," or "deserving what they got" to a frame of coordination containing "a women like my mother or sister" or "a human being just like me.…”

The abstinence violation effect in child molesters

“…An additional issue is that of motivation, all the men included in this study were awaiting treatment for their sexual offences and were therefore common clinical impression is that cognitive distortions perSist until they are explicitly challenged (Murphy, 1990;Pithers, 1990). Therefore, it is arguable, that despite being in treatment child molesters exhibit the same kind of cognitive distortions as those that existed at the time of their offending.…”

“…The success of cognitive-behavioural interventions, and the associated assumption that the aetiology of problematic behaviours is causally linked to problematic cognitions, has led to the consideration of the distorted perceptions, beliefs and thinking involved in sexually aggressive behaviour (Murphy, 1990;Salter, 1988;Segal & Stermac, 1990). While researchers and 2 clinicians have often noted the important role offenders causal attributions play in mediating the transition to reoffending (pithers, 1990;Salter, 1988) there has been no empirical evidence to support such observations.…”

The Experimental Analysis of Human Sexual Arousal: Some Recent Developments

“…Under these circumstances, the rape victim may shift from a frame of coordination containing submission, needing to be controlled, or deserving what they got to a frame of coordination containing a woman like my mother or sister (or any platonic female friend or relative who is held in high esteem) or a human being just like me. In fact, some therapists have had success with this type of perpetrator-victim confrontation technique (e.g., Murphy, 1990), although success has usually been attributed to mentalistic processes. In contrast, RFT makes no reference to mental concepts in its treatment of complex sexual arousal responses.…”