Relapse prevention, offense process models, and the treatment of sexual offenders.

Is the extraordinary popularity of relapse prevention with sex offender treatment providers justified? Introduced 20 years ago, relapse prevention dominates the field of sexual offending, despite its clear limitations. Two of its major legacies are scrutinized closely : the relapse model and the use of relapse prevention as a treatment framework. Despite its practical value. relapse prevention's widespread adoption has obscured its limitations as a model of the offense process and in treatment design Recent research on sexual offense processes is reviewed, and the self-regulation model (Ward & Hudson, 2000) is examined for its ability to provide a more complete understanding of sex offenders' treatment needs.