But sir, you are an offender

'But sir, you are an offender !'

Narrative coercion as method of behavior modification

Dr Frans E. J. Gieles, 2006, The Netherlands

< http://www.helping-people.info/Treatment/sot/offender.htm >

This is a short explorative study concerning the methodology of sex offender treatment (SOT), frequently used today as routine in the Netherlands and abroad.

Data

The basis is

	a short exploration of the literature and
	the experiences of fifteen clients from several countries.

A short exploration of the literature is not much, but I read in the literature of 2006 nearly the same as in the literature of 1996. There seem to be only a few changes and developments, only in detail within the chosen model, but the model itself is the same. My impression is: Much of the same.

Fifteen clients are not much, but data are extremely scarce and very difficult to get. This is because the clients are not allowed to talk about their own treatment. If they do, they break their contract, thus they hinder their treatment, thus they break the conditions of the court, and thus they can be sent back to prison. In several countries, this can be for many years in awful and dangerous circumstances. Nevertheless, fifteen narratives reached me.

Method

The methodology is described with ‘the seven elements of human acting,’ developed in my dissertation.

Summary:

See the scheme here below.

The first column, "Element,"
Gives the seven elements of - every - human action. To act is more than performing a deed.

(1) Action starts with interpreting the situation, and we see that different people may have quite different interpretations.
(2) The actor's goals will determine the action taken.
(3) The actor has to make a choice out of several possible ways of acting, and then act on his choice.
(4) Then, the actor will look at the outcome, and also has to interpret this.
(5) There remains a feeling afterwards that evaluates the deeds and the outcome in practical, emotional and ethical aspects.
(6) By acting, the actor discovers knowledge or comes to questions.
(7) Finally, the actor looks ahead to future actions, and tries to improve his way of acting.

The last row, Summary, gives a succinct description of the act as analyzed above.

The second column, "Therapists,"
Analyses the therapists' way of acting, as it is described in the literature. Here we see what the therapists see, want, do, the outcome of their acts, and so on. The summary is sharp and critical.

The third column, "Clients,"
Analyses the way the clients have experienced the acts of the therapist. The source is here what the clients have told me.

The fourth column, "Critique,"
Gives my critique of the way the therapists acted, including their interpretations, their goals, their methods, and so on.

Scheme

'But sir, you are an offender!'

Element	Therapists	Clients	Critique
(1) Interpretation	As an offender. As strange and different, as distorted and dangerous, as a manipulator. As a behaving being.	As a person with an inner, a personal biography, able to act, as a whole and as an individual.	Too reductionist. Two visions on the human, one for the clients, another for the therapists.
(2) Goals	Prevention of recidivism, thus changing the offence behavior; becoming responsible.	No data. Supposedly: only to survive.	Too limited, too much concentrated on behavior, not therapeutic.
(3) Ways of acting	Narrative coercion and other forms of coercion and control. Conditions beforehand, keeping distance, a group, an offence scenario, an offence chain, sexual script, avoiding the funnel, lots of orders, normalizing fantasies; sometimes medicines.	Clients feel treated like toddlers and complain about endless repetition.	Too much coercion, too concentrated on outward behavior; no attention to the inner mind or psyche and the underlying problems.
(4) Outcome	Recidivism? This is low. Behavior changed? Questionnaires, after-care group. Stimuli? Triggers or disinhibitors? Contacts?	Clients learn to pretend. 'No stroke changed' Obsessions and depressions still alive.	Not as intended: the outcome is far from therapeutic.
(5) Feeling afterwards	No data. Impression: Difficult!' 'but also pride on the own expertise. Negative feelings of the clients: This is part of the method, thus good.	Extremely negative. Too awful for words. Depressed, humiliated, traumatized, deprived of self-confidence. This is a cruel method.	Take the feelings of the clients afterward more seriously.
(6) Insights	One stays within the chosen model and believes in it.	I pretend to agree with them: the only way to be released.	This does not work, at least not therapeutically.
(7) Way to improve	None. No development, no self-critique. Ivory tower. Ideology.	Let them listen to us and respect us.	Have a critical view of the model and the vision behind it. Start development of methodology.
In summary	A very one-sided model full of use of narrative and other kinds of coercion, which comes across as an ideology, is in itself a closed system.	A disaster! I am not, totally not changed.	Become self-critical; review the model.

Results

The methodology shows a very one-sided view on the patients, narrow goals, and a very one-sided methodology in which narrative and coercion are at the core.

The results show low recidivism, but also very negative feeling and judgment of the patients.

The methodology is described as "psychotherapy," but there is no attention paid to the psyche of the patients, only to their behavior and thinking, not to their obsession, depression or such problems; it is not "therapy" at all, it is behavior modification – or ideology.

Conclusions

The cognitive behavioral model of treatment of sex offenders needs a critical view, review and change.

Feelings of the therapists as well as of the patients have to be investigated in a process of developing this methodology into a less one-sided and narrow model.

Start with the vision of the human being, thus on a philosophical level. Then, review the goals and methods, which might be done on the level of the psychology and psychiatry in a broad sense, thus not only on the level of the cognitive-behavioral psychology.

Quotes

A mother:

"There are eight teenage boys and two therapists, and all the rest of us are parents and grandparents. We are bewildered, we are depressed and we are all consigned to this room for months. I am sick for hours beforehand and a day or more afterwards, unable to sleep in peace, to eat, to hold a casual conversation.

These boys, including my son, are sex offenders. We, as their parents, are complicit in crimes hard to explain or define. Recently I asked my 14-year-old son what he's learned from the painful events of the last year, and he said, "I've learned sex is bad. I don't want to think about it anymore."

I believe the cure has been much worse than the disease.
Each of the boys in our therapy program must 'disclose,' again and again, to all of us. Public confession is believed to be more than a good -- it's considered necessary to healing, a sign of responsibility, the willingness to take one's crimes upon oneself.

He's learning about 'ownership' and 'restitution' and 'errors of thought.'
I don't believe that it is his fault that the system is so cruel, the therapy so shallow, the philosophy so unintelligent."

"The consequences afterwards? I have listed them:

	depression
	sadness
	always have watery eyes
	to withdraw into oneself
	angriness when the person "wakes up" afterwards
	traumatized
	feeling inferior to others
	feel ugly and unworthy
	feel crushed
	scared of people
	no more self-confidence
	isolation
	insecurity
	stress
	brainwash
	feeling of being had
	feeling of oneself not having being respected in his beliefs
	feeling of not being able to express oneself enough
	terrorism
	discrimination."

Another client:

"I could constantly hear welling up in my brain the words, 'Sex is wrong. Love is wrong.'