RE: [ATSA-LIST] Sex Offender Denial

["Ron Kokish" <dka@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with Ken, Jan and others that denial has an indirect effect on
recidivism in that we don't/can't treat deniers. Being in the untreated
rather than treated groups, they are therefore more likely to reoffend.
(Assuming, as I do, that there is a substantial treatment effect.)  And yes,
maybe, deniers are better at deception and don't get caught as often as
admitter. (Personally, I think that's a stretch - if we are counting them,
they have already been caught at least once.)

I also suspect (but cannot prove) that the reason studies show little
correlation between denial and recidivism is because there are a substantial
number of "deniers' in the samples who really didn't do it. They don't
reoffend because they never offended in the first place. If we could cull
them out and count only deceptive deniers we might get different results.

Nonetheless, the data does sound an alarm. We shouldn't just assume that
denial is a positive indicator for reoffense. The relationship needs to be
studied. Until it is, we can reasonably
assert that deniers won't receive meaningful treatment and the benefits that
go with it. (The falsely accused ones of course, don't need treatment.) We
can believe what we like, but we really don't know any more than that.


************************************************************************
  Ron Kokish at Delson-Kokish Associates, 305 "O" Street, Eureka, CA
   Serving Victims, Families, and Perpetrators of Abuse since 1984
Clinical and Forensic Consultation and Training for Agencies and Courts
           707)441-8626 voice  442-5040 fax  dka@northcoast.com
****         On the Web at:   http://www.northcoast.com/~dka        ****

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-atsa-list@simplelist.com
[mailto:owner-atsa-list@simplelist.com]On Behalf Of Prescott y Keeler
Sent: Friday, February 25, 2000 6:12 AM
To: CHILD MALTREATMENT RESEARCH; atsa-list
Subject: [ATSA-LIST] Sex Offender Denial


Regarding denial not being a correlate with recidivism:

Two things are not being said about denial.

Denial can severely limit a sex offender's ability in treatment to fully
address those issues that correlate strongly with reoffense.

Secondly, if an offender is successful at denial it may well be also true
that they would score well on deception.  A low recidivism rate could be a
reflection of a high deceptive ability.

Ken Prescott, MSW, LCSW
Los Angeles, California