offender treatment - Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings

CSAM Recidivism: A Summary of Research

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000

In this video I give a brief summary of research studies and meta-analysis regarding the rate of recidivism for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenders.

Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:

The most important take away here is understanding that internet-only offenders are at an extremely low-risk of sexually re-offending. 4.6% is the exact number based on Seto (2011).

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses? Then you should stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

The post CSAM Recidivism: A Summary of Research first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

How to do Primary Prevention and More

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 18:59:44 +0000

My reading over coffee this morning was a great article in Time Magazine about moving the US toward the primary prevention of child sexual abuse, a front page Wall Street Journal article about child predators using TikTok to gain access to victims and my first moderately threatening troll comments on a webinar on my YouTube page.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Matt Popovich on Unsplash " class="wp-image-1921"/>

Primary Prevention vs Secondary Prevention

Let’s start with the Time Magazine article. This article, entitled America Has been going about stopping child sex abuse the wrong way, was written by Elizabeth Letourneau and Luke Malone.

Elizabeth Letourneau is the Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at John Hopkins. Luke Malone is an award winning journalist who writes about child sexual abuse and victimization.

Reading this article this morning felt very validating.

When I teach to LEO or other mental health professionals, I discuss how the US is very good at secondary prevention but not so good at primary prevention. Meaning, once we catch someone AFTER they have abused a child, the system is relatively good at holding them accountable. That includes: mandating treatment during incarceration and/or after while the person is on probation or parole.

This is secondary prevention. We work hard to prevent ANOTHER sexual assault from happening.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

How should we do Primary Prevention?

Primary prevention, meaning we prevent the FIRST sexual assault from happening is not something our system is very good at.

Much of the teaching puts the onus on potential victims to stop potential assault rather than putting the responsibility on the abuser. This would be primary prevention.

Some other countries have done a better job at this and I point to Project Dunkelfeld in Germany. There, a person who is concerned they may offend against a child can call a program and receive treatment. The treatment program is publicly advertised and funded.

In the United States, for every $1 spent toward prevention research, $2700 is spent on incarcerating offenders. They also discuss current research projects that are working on ways of improving and increasing primary prevention in the US.

The authors have a book coming out at some point which I look forward to reading.

Learn more about Primary Prevention and its benefits in these articles:

Child Predators on TikTok

This app has made it big! They made it to the front page of the Wall Street Journal, a paper noted more for discussing financial markets than sexual abuse.

The WSJ featured an article discussing how TikTok has quickly become an avenue for child abusers to find and groom victims.

Those of us in the field have known this for some time.

It’s good to see it make the front page. Perhaps parents will read the article and start to monitor what their children are doing on the app. Frequently, there is little parental oversight on social media apps which leads some children to be vulnerable to predation.

If you’re unfamiliar with sextortion, check out Dr. Jen’s article How to Protect Your Child from Sextortion.

YouTube Trolls

Finally, to my first troll. I awoke this morning to some comments on a webinar on my YouTube channel about treating individuals with pedophilia. The comments were not surprising, but disappointing.

The person commented that I was an “intellectual” who should be “purged.” They made traditionally stereotypical comments about people who commit sex crimes needing to be beat up or killed. Though, in my mind, I made many replies, I have long ago learned that social media repartee with folks with strong but uninformed opinions goes nowhere.

So, to end my morning coffee, I simply reported them for making threats. Then I began my day of working in secondary prevention of sexual abuse.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

The post How to do Primary Prevention and More first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Are Denial and Minimization Always Bad? New Perspectives

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 13:11:21 +0000

Have you ever minimized your actions? Or even denied all or part of them? How do denial and minimization reflect on the accused?

Guest Blog by Patti Hoyt LPC CAADC CSAT

What are Denial and Minimization?

Denial is a small child saying “I didn’t do it,” when a parent walks into a messy room. Maybe, you say you completed a task, but in reality, you haven’t started it.

Minimization is a small child saying “It isn’t that bad,” when they get a poor grade or you saying “It isn’t that big of a deal,” when you forget to bring something you said you would.

Denial and minimization are both types of cognitive distortions. We all deny or minimize behaviors at some point in our lives.

Struggling with excessive sexual thoughts, urges, or activities that are causing you distress? Take the free, online Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale (SSAS) and get a link to share with your therapist.

Denial and Minimization in Forensic Psychology

Yet, in the forensic world, denial and minimization are viewed as a negative behaviors and cause for concern.

They are often seen as:

Barriers to accountability
Barriers to treatment response
A predictor for reoffense

Treatment often focuses on denial and minimization as a means to reduce risk of reoffending. However, the research on denial and minimization has yielded inconsistent results over the years.

Some studies have shown addressing denial for certain populations reduces risk of reoffending for a few, but not necessarily all.

Multiple researchers have been exploring the question “What is the function of denial?”

Why do people deny all or part of an event?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

According to the Research

Current research by Gabrielle B. Lucente and Kevin L. Nunes of Carleton University explores the function of denial.

They note denial is an adaptive response to a person being charged with a crime. They propose denial should be addressed as a barrier to treatment rather than a deficit to be addressed.

The researchers have indicated multiple possibilities for the use of these cognitive distortions by people who have been charged with a crime. Through their research, they have identified what they call the Adaptational Model.

Why do People Deny or Minimize?

People deny or minimize their actions for some of the following reasons:

To continue offending behavior or continue to manipulate situations (psychopathy)
- If I don’t tell, I can keep doing it, and no one will ever know.

Protect self-esteem
- If I don’t tell, people will continue to like me. I will still have friends and family.

Avoid consequences of action
- If I don’t tell, I will still have a job or people will continue to talk to me.

Distance self from negative label like sexual offender
- If I don’t tell, I won’t have the shame of being labeled negatively.

Protect identity
- This behavior is completely out of character and something I would never do it, thus I cannot tell.

Avoid negative evaluations from others
- If I don’t tell, I won’t be judged.

The more a person has at stake, such as losing friends, family, employment, sense of self, or increasing self-loathing, the more likely it is that they will minimize or deny their actions. The role of shame often plays a huge part in denial and minimization.

Are you a Licensed Professional Counselor in need of continuing education? Learn more about Sex Addiction, Erotic Conflict, and Moral Incongruence from Dr. Weeks and Sexual Addiction Treatment Services, an NBCC ACEP™ approved provider!

Sexual Addiction Treatment Services has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7250. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Sexual Addiction Treatment Services is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Does the Research Recommend Denial and Minimization?

This research does not give permission to anyone to deny or minimize any behavior.

What it does is give insight to why these thinking patterns can occur.

Changing how we look at denial and minimization allows treatment providers to explore barriers to a person’s responsiveness to treatment.

If a treatment provider starts to ask about the “Why” behind denial or minimization, they can help the client begin to work through the underlying mechanisms for the distorted thinking.

Guest Blog by Patti Hoyt LPC CAADC CSAT

Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Are Denial and Minimization Always Bad? New Perspectives first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.