Denial and its relationship with treatment perceptions among sex offenders

Abstract

We examined the relationship between denial/minimization and treatment perceptions using multiple measures of each construct in a sample of 185 adult male sex offenders. Denial/minimization was measured with the Comprehensive Inventory of Denial—Sex Offender version (CID-SO), Sex Offender Acceptance of Responsibility Scales (SOARS), and an item from a risk assessment measure (Sexual Violence Risk-20; SVR-20). Treatment perceptions were measured with the treatment readiness scale of the Multiphasic Sex Inventory (MSI and MSI-II) and the treatment rejection scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Most aspects of denial and minimization had significant moderate to strong associations with more negative perceptions of treatment. Questions about the distinctiveness versus overlap between measures of denial/minimization and treatment perceptions notwithstanding, our findings are consistent with conceptualizations in past research and practice that greater denial/minimization is associated with lower motivation for treatment. Rather than excluding deniers from treatment, additional efforts are required to engage higher risk sex offenders exhibiting denial and minimization.

Keywords:

• denial
• minimization
• treatment motivation
• sex offenders

Acknowledgments

We thank Northern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Services for facilitating access to these data, and Melissa Daniels, Lisa Jamieson, John DeCesare, and Shayla Stein for assisting with the coding, retrieval, and organization of the data. This research was funded, in part, by Grant MacEwan University.