Sexual offending remains a serious social problem. Because of significant psychological repercussions for many victims and the high rates of offender recidivism, there is a pressing need for research on the effective treatment of sex offenders (Johnston and Ward, 1996). The most common form of intervention consists of cognitive-behavioural therapy incorporating concepts of relapse prevention (Murphy and Smith, 1996). Typical targets of treatment are aspects implicated in the origins and maintenance of sexual offending: offenders' deviant sexual preferences, their lack of empathy for victims, and cognitive distortions (Marshall, 1999). In this chapter, we present discursive research on the treatment of offenders' cognitive distortions.

Cognitive distortions represent one facet of problematic cognitive processes theorised to underpin offenders' criminal behaviour; denial or minimisation of sexual offences, problematic attitudes toward women and children, and crime-supportive attitudes have also been identified (Marshall, 1999). Abel and his colleagues (e.g., Abel et al., 1984, 1989) employed the term ‘cognitive distortions’ to describe those offence-relevant beliefs of child molesters that serve to justify and maintain their conduct. The literature suggests that offenders support sexist beliefs about women, likely view children in sexualised terms and endorse attitudes supportive of the sexual entitlement of males (Ward et al., 1997). Clinicians and researchers stress the importance of such distorted thinking and maladaptive beliefs in the facilitation or justification of sexual offences (Johnston and Ward, 1996). Cognitive-behavioural therapy assumes that, in order for sex offenders to alter their behaviour, they must change the way they think.