The Experience of Deniers on a Community Sex Offender Group Program

Approaches to treating sex offenders who deny their offense include treating deniers on mainstream treatment programs. In exploring the success of this approach, five deniers on the mainstream Community Sex Offender Group (CSOG) treatment program and five program facilitators were interviewed about their experience of such a group. Interviews considered whether denial impacts participants' integration in the treatment group, their motivation and ability to participate, and their progress on treatment targets. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data revealing themes associated with identity, feeling safe in the group, working on a hypothetical basis, and generalized benefits. Facilitators felt deniers were largely able to integrate into a mainstream treatment group, participate in treatment, and derive some benefit from the treatment. Similarly, deniers' accounts suggest the experience of three of the five deniers reflected this, whereas two of the deniers experienced difficulties in all areas. The differences between these two groups are discussed.