Abstract
People convicted of sex crimes have high rates of child maltreatment and family dysfunction as youngsters. Early adversity can create distorted thinking and maladaptive coping patterns. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can interfere with attachment and bonding, healthy relationship skills, and empathy development. Using guidelines developed by SAMHSA, trauma-informed practitioners can integrate knowledge about the neurobiological, psychological, and social consequences of childhood trauma into policies, procedures, and practices that guide a safe, compassionate, respectful treatment environment. Sex offending treatment programs can use trauma-informed care to transform their interventions from primarily content-driven psycho-education to a more collaborative, dynamic, process-oriented, and experiential approach that utilizes the therapeutic encounter as a corrective emotional experience to help clients build skills that reduce risk for recidivism.
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Levenson, J.S., Willis, G.M., Prescott, D. (2018). Incorporating Principles of Trauma-Informed Care Into Evidence-Based Sex Offending Treatment. In: Jeglic, E., Calkins, C. (eds) New Frontiers in Offender Treatment . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01030-0_9
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