The Sexual Assault Control Program: how it works

Few criminal acts such as sexual assaults on women and children they generate so much aversion in our society. People often react with incomprehension, horror and shock when talking about sexual assault, as the perpetrator is crossing an unbreakable ethical, social and legal barrier for so many people.

In recent decades, this type of criminal behavior has been arousing high interest in the scientific community and in society in general. The goal is to find ways to make these kinds of acts practically disappear, and that's why Initiatives such as the sexual assault control program (SAC) have appeared. Let's see what it is like and what effects its application can have.

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Sexual assault control program (SAC)

Many of the sexual offenders commit these acts in order to feel good, have power and control... Getting pleasure in this way can be, in part, an escape route of other painful or unpleasant experiences such as shame, fear, anger, etc. They perceive that there is no other available way to obtain this gratification, they do not empathize with the victim, and they show insufficient control to inhibit and direct her actions.

What response can we give from Psychology to these criminal acts? Is there any treatment for this class of people? Can they be reintegrated into society? What guarantees are there that they will not reoffend? In this article we are going to talk about a treatment for cognitive-behavioral sexual offenders which has given good results in Spain, although we cannot say that it is a panacea.

The sexual assault control program (SAC) has its theoretical support in the explanatory model of sexual delinquency devised by Marshall and Barbaree (1989), making special reference to the confrontation of pro-criminal cognitive patterns, in the Walters '(1989) criminal lifestyle model, and Pithers' relapse prevention framework (1987).

The SAC program was designed by Garrido and Beneyto (1996) taking as a reference previous works by other authors specialized in the area. It is aimed at sexual offenders, and is structured in 3 manuals: manual for the therapist, manual for the inmate and evaluation system. The first application of this program was carried out in parallel in two prisons in the province of Barcelona: Quatre Camins and Brians.

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Inclusion requirements and reasons for exclusion

To access the program, priority is given to those convicted inmates who have already served ¾ parts of the sentence, or they have less than 4 years left for compliance. In addition, prison psychologists highly value the form of voluntariness and the acceptance of criminal responsibility as conducive to change.

But not all inmates who meet the above requirements can continue with the program: those who respond with loss of willingness to follow it, those who show behaviors that hinder the progress of the program, as well as the persistence of a personality structure at risk of criminal recidivism, will be left excluded.

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What are the objectives of the SAC program?

This program is designed to improve the chances of reintegration and non-recidivism of the inmate who has committed a crime of sexual assault, improving the effectiveness of your psychosocial skills.

It is a semi-structured therapeutic intervention that combines cognitive-behavioral techniques. They are activities that require introspection, confrontation with oneself and with others, structured learning of coping skills and the development of self-control.

This program it is applied regularly in the group modality, in one or two weekly therapeutic sessions, lasting two hours, for about 9-11 months.

As we will see below, the SAC program is structured in several intervention phases, divided into 2 large blocks: awareness and control. Before starting, a muscle relaxation training is carried out to proactively control your states of tension.

Awareness

Various cognitive and emotional elements are worked on with the aim of making the person more aware of their criminal activities and the risk factors that precipitate them (p. g., cognitive distortions) related to them. To develop this block, 5 modules are used:

• Analysis of personal history: the subject performs a review of her own life.
• Introduction to cognitive distortions: his thinking errors and distorted interpretation of his criminal behavior are confronted therapeutically (p. eg, “she was provoking me, she was asking me, even if she said no”).
• Emotional awareness: the idea is to improve your knowledge and introspection. Recognize your emotions and those of other people.
• Violent behavior: behaviors of aggression and harm to the victims are analyzed.
• Defense mechanisms: It is about reducing the justification of the crime through confrontation. The program manual exemplifies up to 107 typical excuses used by sexual offenders, such as: “It was not for So much ”,“ I'm not perfect ”,“ I had a bad night ”,“ I didn't hurt her as much as she said ”,“ I was crying out for it with her way of wear".

Take the control

The intention is to that the subject dominates his own behavior in order to inhibit his criminal activities. This block is made up of 7 modules (2 of them are relapse prevention):

• Cognitive distortions: the subject is informed of the functioning of the distortions, he is helped to identify her internal dialogue, they are classified irrational and deviant thoughts, these thoughts are challenged and attempts are made to replace them with interpretations rational. Negative beliefs towards them are typical of aggressors of adult women, while child abusers rationalize their behavior or accuse their victims of provocateurs.
• Positive lifestyle: they are taught to program their daily life.
• Sex education: information about the functioning of human sexuality, from the scientific to the ethical aspect. Special emphasis is placed on consent, on sex as an activity of communication and reciprocal respect for people's wishes.
• Modification of sex drive: it seeks to reduce the sexual impulse in the face of inappropriate stimuli that involve the use of violence or abuse of minors (self-stimulatory reconditioning or covert sensitization).
• Relapse prevention.

Do these types of programs work?

Unfortunately, sex offenders, along with the drug-addicted offender population, are the most difficult subjects to reinsert and tend to reoffend. Treatment success rates are not as positive as we would all like. However, the most widely used and effective psychological treatments with sexual offenders are those with a cognitive-behavioral orientation (Brandes and Cheung, 2009; Marshall and Marshall, 20I4; Zata and Farringtoo, 2016), as is the SAC.

The sexual assault control program has been successful, although we must be cautious. In a study carried out by Redondo, Navarro, Martínez, Luque and Andrés (2005) showed that after a 4-year follow-up of inmates who had gone through the SAC program, only 4% relapsed for crimes of sexual assault (in the control group, not treated, a 11%).

In addition, professionals should take into account that there are a number of factors that correlate with the best treatment prognosis (p. eg, empathy towards the victim, creation of social support, not presenting mental illnesses, genuine and true desires to change), and they should be assessed individually to enhance them.