The effectiveness of relapse prevention training in a group of incarcerated child molesters

A sample of child molesters participating in the U.K. prison sex offender treatment programme (SOTP) were required to complete a relapse prevention questionnaire before and after treatment. Results indicated that there were significant improvements in both awareness of risk situations and coping strategies, as measured by this instrument, through treatment. Nine months after the end of treatment most agreed to complete the questionnaire again. Those who had shown significant changes in terms of reduction of pro-offending attitudes through treatment maintained their RP skills. Men whose attitudes had not changed, although evidencing good RP skills at the end of treatment, were found to have lost these. This was most noticeable among men who had been released into the community and who had undergone a relatively short amount of therapy on the original SOTP (80 hours). These results indicate that RP training is only really useful where individuals have genuinely changed through treatment; and that the RP training should only be undertaken as part of an extensive treatment programme covering all areas of offending behaviour.