We fell into three general groups of offenders based on offense typology.

Sex offender therapy, in my province and also (to some extent) in certain parts of Europe, never divide "sex offenders" into groups. I've never heard of such practice before unless you're saying there were different groups you could identify yourself rather than different groups they had identified and treat differently (in any way).

In practice, they don't treat them differently. A sex offender is a sex offender is a sex offender.

I am still researching, and considering joining a SOT organization, but my current conclusion is that most programs operate with similar premises and methods

True.

The first task is to break the new participant's "denial".

That process is done through coercion. If someone joins a SOT program by himself, without having a criminal record, then he cannot be in "denial" since he joined it on his own. On the other hand, if someone is convicted and considered a "sex offender" and is "in denial" his sentence will be longer. They'll say: "you're still dangerous, you don't admit to what you did".

That simple coercion is efficient in 99% of cases. No-one shows up to SOT still "in denial".

Situational child molestors in particular deny it to the end of the earth, in the face of undeniable evidence, and only cave when the final threat of being kicked out of the program (and thus returned directly to prison) is made.

Deny what? I've never seen someone deny it in a SOT program before. Very strange.

Most of them are extremely manipulative individuals that tell the therapists what they want to hear in order to obtain good evaluations. There are also other dynamics at play (the dynamics of group therapy themselves) and they gain something through them, also.

I don't know what's a "situational child molester". As i said, it's not typical of them to divide them into categories, the only category they talk about, in practice, is a fit-all "sex offender" one.

This takes probably 50% of a person's time in a three-year SOT program. It involves admitting, detailing a sexual history of the person, and discussing their history at length to identify and work on "rationalizations" and "cognitive distortions".

Group therapy isn't aimed at identifying rationalizations and cognitive distortions. It's true dynamics are at a whole other level and therapists scientifically know that from the minute they build these groups.

Here's an old post i once wrote about it:


"Ryion, brainwashing is using coercion to induce a change of behavior. They do not call it brainwashing anymore and use new politically correct expressions like "behavior modification therapy" and "reinforcement".

This technique is very simple. For example, if someone wears a green t-shirt and you want him to stop wearing that shirt, you beat him and break his nose until he wears another shirt, and then you shake his hand and compliment him on his new shirt. 50 years ago they used torture to achieve this kind of reinforcement, now they use more subtle and socially acceptable ways that are as efficient, if not more efficient.

The same psychological techniques are now used in cults, and are quite efficient in modifying behaviors.

Group therapy is used for this purpose. If you are not participating in some kind of CBT group therapy, but rather individual meetings, i wouldn't call it brainwashing. The coercion is too minimal or non-existant.

Here are the ingredients used in most kinds of "group therapy", CBT or not, as coercion to induce a change of behavior:

- Rewards for patients that conform to the ideology (like compliments);
- Punishment for patients that don't conform (like telling you in front of the group that "you don't want to help yourself", that "you are rebellious and have problems", etc);
- Independant thinking and nonconformity are punished through peer pressure;
- The us-against-them mentality: the group is right, outsiders are wrong;
- Group leaders single out the deviant thinker and turn the group against him/her.

That's the definition of modern, socially acceptable brainwashing."

There is a middle part where participants usually work on interpersonal skills, healthy adult sexuality, rationalizations and cognitive distortions, life skills, substance abuse issues, personal abuse issues, and victim empathy, which is the topic of this post.

True.

For the second and third group of offenders, victim empathy is a difficult concept in the SOT.

I perceived it as a crying contest, nothing more/nothing less.

It has to do with what the therapists want to hear. And, when you know them and why they chose that career (there's nothing random in life) then they have a personal satisfaction out of seeing a pedophile cry and imploring "divine forgiveness" for "his sickening behavior and thoughts".

Frankly, up to this point, i dislike how you talk about therapists like they're objective experts. I get weird vibes from you, like - for some reason - you didn't see behind the curtains what was really going on.

We were always accused of failing at "empathy". That is the universal "pedophile" experience in SOT.

Very strange. Sex offenders are usually expert in manipulation and pass the crying contest with flying colors.

The final element of the SOT programs is the development of a written and detailed "relapse prevention plan", designed to reduce the risk of the individual acting sexually with children.

True.

1. That an autoerotic life has increases the risk of a "pedophile" molesting a child

Aka the thought police, usually seen in pedophobes. When telling them that there's a difference between thinking something and doing something, their reply is: "thinking can lead to doing it" - which is the motto of the thought police.

2. That contact with children increases the risk of a "pedophile" molesting a child

Like watching violent TV shows leads to RL violent acts.