Dr. Ruth Mann (Head of Evidence at the National Offender Management Service [NOMS]) came to the University of Lincoln on Wednesday 22nd October to present some insights about sex offender treatment programmes as part of the School of Psychology Research Seminar Series.
As part of her talk, Dr. Mann suggested that some aspects of sex offender treatment (specifically around ‘victim empathy’ and ‘taking responsibility’) may be less suitable treatment targets than more general cognitive deficits in relation to generalised empathy and problem-solving. Some of the points raised also reflected Ross Bartels‘ view that general antisocial/criminal cognition be addressed in research as much as sex-related cognition is (see FCRG post here for more on this).
Dr Mann’s slides can be viewed here