Measuring the effectiveness of treatment for the aggressive adolescent sexual offender.

This paper has described a cognitive-behavioral outpatient treatment program for adolescent sexual offenders. The multicomponent treatment program consists of verbal satiation, cognitive restructuring, covert sensitization, social skills training, anger control training, sex education, and relapse prevention sessions. Data has been presented on 24 adolescents who completed treatment. Results indicated that adolescents involved with male victims significantly decreased deviant sexual arousal pre- and posttreatment, as measured by penile plethysmography. For those adolescents who molested female victims, a decrease in deviant arousal was also evidenced, although it was not statistically significant.