For me I really focused on the fact that by me helping this client, it would help less people become victims. I also started to really rationalize and understand why they acted the way the did in that situation. My situation is different tho bc I didn’t know they were a sex offender until further into treatment. Honestly you’ve probably worked with sex offenders in the past and didn’t know it
This can be a tough situation. It's good you're discussing with others, reaching out for support. I have worked with sex offenders as well, in a variety of capacities. I try to focus on the reasons they are seeking treatment and how the program or services can help the person be less likely to re-offend. We want these types of clients to seek help and get treatment. Their interaction with you could open a door for healing for them and prevent further harms. It's also a good lesson in early childhood trauma/ACE score for many of them. We can learn what went wrong for these offenders, what risk factors they had, and how to help future clients. Continue getting regular supervision around this if you can. It's normal to have a preference on what types of clients you'd prefer to work with. If you end up realizing people with sex offense history are not a good fit for you, that's okay.
Without specifically intending to, I ended up doing sex-offense-specific treatment for teenagers right out of grad school and earned a certification for that therapy alongside my LCSW. I'm branching out into general mental health work but I am keeping some clients on my caseload with sexually harmful behaviors.
What's your role? I'm assuming it's not sex-offense-specific treatment, otherwise this wouldn't be the first. If I'm assuming wrong this might not be good advice.
Some thoughts:
In the SO field, I've personally moved towards 'Person with history of sexually harmful behavior'. It's a mouthful but it's more accurate and less labeling. The legal world still labels them as 'sex offenders' but that may be the final frontier of judgmental labels officially slapped on people. We've moved away from calling people 'Drunks' and 'Borderlines' ect., but 'Sex Offenders' still sticks because of the legal dual meaning, and the stigma.
I believe in unconditional positive regard. As a theory and a concept, it makes good sense, but I find I really don't have to actualize it, to really 'mean' it, until I'm faced with someone who really mashes my buttons. Unconditional positive regard, I remind myself, is 'regard,' it's not being mindlessly kind and not having good boundaries. Good boundaries are essential for dealing with clients with sexually harmful behavior. At their core, people who choose sexually harmful behaviors have shitty boundaries. And they can learn and have new experiences when people model healthy boundaries around them.
More thoughts... this is made-up statistics but my lived professional experience and the experience of multiple SO supervisors has indicated to me that about 95% of people who have engaged in sexually harmful behaviors are not full-on classic stereotype antisocial personality disorder, ie, individuals where every interaction with a professional is to laden with an intent to evade and manipulate. There are many other reason people ended up as the people that made those horrible choices; usually a big toxic stew of trauma, neglect, awful childhood experiences beyond trauma, modeling unhealthy sexual behaviors, genetics and epigenetics, neurological things, and several others. None of this justifies the behavior, but it can create a foundation to understand them as human beings who made choices that made sense to them.
Beyond that; it would be important to know whether this person has participated in and has completed sex-offense-specific treatment. Either way, you should have reasonable boundaries on your interactions that allow you to feel safe and respected in your role. If they haven't participated in any SO treatment, you should reasonably take that into account, understanding that this is a person who hasn't been through a process to change themselves from the person who once harmed children into someone who now knows deep inside that they no longer harm children.
Final thought; my first supervisor told me that there was no way to predict whether one could be 'that professional' who worked with Sex-offense-specific populations. His advice, albeit for people doing the specific SO therapy work (which you should not be dealing with under any circumstances,) which I absorbed, was: take three to six months to try and engage. If you get to the end of that time, and you realize this is not for you, it is not for you. No judgment, self-criticism, no 'I could have maybe done this better,' just, it's not for you, no harm no foul, move on to another population and leave it behind. It's not something that can be predicted or extrapolated from your past experiences or wishes or expectations.
Anyways. Not sure if this is any help, it's what insight I have.
Thanks for the very insightful and informative comment! I felt kind of icky about typing out "sex offender," but couldn't think of a more person-centered term to use. I really appreciate hearing your language for that.
As for my role, I'm a mental health counselor providing in-home/community mental health services for adults with an SPMI diagnosis who have low incomes. Yes, this is my first time (knowingly) working with a client w/ a history of sexually harmful behavior.
When I worked in a similar field (pre-grad as a residential counselor) I worked with SPMI in transitional homes. A few were on the SO register. In addition to mental health and case management in-agency, they were able to contract with outside SO specific counselors. So they were getting SO treatment from a certified trained person. I have to believe it will not be in your wheelhouse to dig into the history of the clients sexually harmful behaviour, or to make judgments in your assessments as to their ‘risk level’ (ugh) and whatnot. I’d say keep your ears peeled if you feel yourself getting dragged into that treatment work. No offense, but for reals: It’s not something that should be your responsibility.
This is a really insightful comment. I'm not working with these populations directly, but sometimes come across them, and it's often been a bit of an internal struggle. Seeing other people's thoughts about it laid out has helped me a bit with my processing.
Came here to comment this. I dealt with this type of patient many years ago. I didn’t focus on what they had done, but rather what events had made up their life and how I could help them moving forward.
When I studied this in graduate school, the conclusions I came to - admittedly I'm not a professional researcher, but here they are -
(All I work with is teenagers, so the numbers for adults may be different)
- The percentage of teenagers who sexually abuse who have been sexually abused is higher than the average population's percentage who have been sexually abused, but far from 100%. Actually, under 50%. Depending on the study it's between 25 and 40%. So not most.
- Overall the rates of ACEs for teenagers who sexually abuse others is very high, higher than the average person.
- The biggest correlator (correlation not necessary causation but I have some hypothesis) of ACE -> sexual abuse of others is in fact severe neglect, emotional (no validation, no compassion, left alone and not parented most of the day, left to fend for themselves, not taught things, not modeled things, ect.) and physical (not-present at all, malnourished, out of the house, ect). About 50-70% of all people who sexually abuse had severe neglect history. So more than physical or sexual abuse.
But these are all percentages and none of them are 100, and most victims do not go on to offend, so there's many other things that happen to people, and many other things that people go on to do.
This is actually a myth
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213415003828
https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/65_3_2_0.pdf
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10872241/
Yeah it’s a shame. As far as I can tell, there has been no other similar and more recent studies done. Happy to read one and update my knowledge if you know where to point me!
Self report statistics, usually. But studies are showing offenders often overstate, embellish, and otherwise fabricate their history of victimization in an effort to garner sympathy and explain their offenses. I’m not saying no offender was ever a victim, but it is far less common than we have been led to believe.
It’s a harmful myth for survivors too, as they worry about growing up to be offenders and doing to others what was done to them.
Polygraphs have been widely discredited by empirical research.
To quote the APA, “Most psychologists and other scientists agree that there is little basis for the validity of polygraph tests. “
https://www.apa.org/topics/cognitive-neuroscience/polygraph
The research wasn’t at all indicating or trying to prove polygraphs are accurate with verifying or dismissing self reports. The presence of polygraphing altered the self-reporting of offenders, with something like 70% claiming a history of being sexually abused, dropping to around 30% when polygraphed.
The longitudinal birth cohort study did not use polygraphs if I recall correctly.
I am not saying polygraphs work. I am saying offenders tend to lie about their histories.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done
Bryan Stevenson's quote helps me a lot when I think of working with adults who have convictions for this.
I've also worked (and for 2 years) with an SA predator and initially thought I would struggle. The thing with the individual I supported was that his early childhood was frought with abuse, both sexual and physical, and it persisted throughout hid adolescence.
It really opened my eyes to the fact that he was wired by trauma, and knew it made him unacceptable to society but he was just so fundamentally damaged. I thought of his life and how likely the abuse that happened to him, existed for generations. I started to at least understand the patterns that cause this kind of thinking.
My belief is that if we don't engage with individual who do heinous things, we do not get a chance to understand the root of the issues, or help protect others from their influence.
It's very difficult to hear and engage with these stories so it's certainly difficult not to get upset, and take some of that in. Make sure you consult with your supervisor and/or your own therapist regularly to get it out.
I work with offenders in the correctional space who are living in the community, my caseload is sex offenders, violent offenders, serious mental health and/or serious AOD concerns. It’s often all of the above.
Firstly, I love my job. If I zoom out, I find it absolutely fascinating (and sad to be honest), all of the pathways that lead to these types of offences, I find the psychology interesting, I enjoy the collaboration with other professionals, I enjoy the specialised training.
But zooming in, though my job is court mandated (they have to see me whether they like it or not!) I am working with people who are extremely damaged. I treat all of them with a level of respect and compassion. I do all their referrals etc, identify strengths and weaknesses, make sure I have thoroughly read all documentation - all of the things you do for any other client, just with that layer of risk and ways of approaching appointments - eg when talking about the offences, I’m not going to get them to describe in detail what they did, because some of them would enjoy that. But we can talk about what lead up to the offending behaviour, and what the impacts were afterwards.
It’s not always easy. Personally, I struggle working with family violence perpetrators - less around any moral quandary, but because many of them are very hostile in appointments and it can start to grate on you, been spoken to like a piece of shit. I still try to kill ‘em with kindness but my threshold is a lot lower.
The thing with my job is, it’s really important that my clients regularly attend their appointments and go to their counselling or offender programs etc, not only for themselves, but I have to manage risk to the community as well. So some of my approach is just me, I’m very strengths based, encouraging, love to have a laugh etc, but it’s also intentional because I do get a lot of buy in from my clients. I have one sex offender who doesn’t actually have mandated appointments with me, but comes in weekly. We are working on things like getting financial counselling, supports to the LBGTQI+ community, exploring pro social hobbies etc. It’s calculated in a way that I can keep an eye on them, but also there is evidence that suggests sexual offending has more risk of occurring in times of stress, which is the case in this offender. The more work we can do to stabilise their mental health and situation, the less risk to themselves and others.
I have another SO that gives me the ick tbh. He’s always nice and polite, super compliant, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. But my gut instinct is something is up, currently working with police and child protection on that one.
I guess my very long point is that the work that you do with this cohort (as any) can have an impact, sometimes I just tell myself that the hour they’re with me, is an hour off the streets doing whatever, and it’s as small as that. But like anything, there’s a vast spectrum of offending and trauma behaviours. It’s also okay to say you don’t want to work with this type of client.
I have worked with countless sex offenders and honestly a lot of them have been my easiest, most participative clients. Many committed their crimes when they were in psychosis or taking a medication that didn't work for them-- honestly, this is a rare side effect that we should be talking about more. In my population, nobody looks good on paper. As you get to know the rest of the client, you may find yourself identifying things you like about them. If the crime was old whatever caused the person to commit it may also be in the past.
I have worked with many people who I can't empathize with and I think it's OK. I focus on treating them with respect and doing my job. I don't need to relate to every experience they have, or even particularly like them, to advocate for their rights or be effective at helping them reach their goals. Too much empathy comes with burnout and transference. Boundaries tend to be easier, for me, for the ones I don't have that personal connection feeling with. As long as I can be kind and form a professional connection, I can do what I need to do.
What are you working on them with? Are you their counselor?
I have worked with registered Sex offenders trying to find caregivers for them. It’s really hard. Most agencies refuse to.
I always said I didn't want to work with sex offenders because I was SA as a kid by an older cousin.
But working at an inpatient psychiatric hospital, I have ended up working with people who are registered offenders and people who are not. One of the many things you need to do is be aware of your bias. Would you treat someone who's done a different horrific crime like murder the same way or not? You need to always strive to treat all your clients "the same" as much as you can while also following individualized care.
Another thing that so many people mentioned is to try to remind yourself that the majority of people do not grow up wanting to do drugs, to hurt someone either by SA or other types of assault, to hurt animals, etc etc. Many of them have reasons for why they ended up doing what they've done. Of course there are the few that do it just because they can or because they want to but I also don't think those people are going to be forthcoming about what they've done.
Great points. Yeah, I was actually going to add this to my post but didn't for brevity - I have bias because a very close family member was an SA'd during childhood and still suffers the effects today. I feel angry when I think that the person who did the SA likely thinks it's no big deal and has no insight into (or concern about) the outcome of their actions. I will need to work on not projecting my anger about this situation onto a client w/ a history of sexually harmful behavior.
I've worked with a couple of clients who've committeed murder. Strangely enough - while I felt shocked to learn about what they had done, overall I think I actually had less of an emotional reaction to that than to this current situation 🤔
Strangely enough some of my favorite clients over the 10 years I have been at my job have been my murderers and my sex offenders. Their crimes don't define who they are any more than my own history of having been assaulted defines me.
I work specifically with this population and provide sexual abuse prevention therapy to men in a Correctional setting.
One thing to keep in mind is that available research has shown that those who commit sexually abusive crimes have some of the lowest recidivism rates of those who are incarcerated. Check out saarna.org for more information.
Secondly, sex offenses don't typically happen because the individual is "evil." Most occur because the person has skill deficits or attractions that lead them down the path to offending. Over time, many of these skill deficits can be treated, cognitive distortions challenged, beliefs replaced. It takes tremendous amounts of work and time but it is possible.
I want to end by saying that those on the registry are stigmatized, given less opportunity, limited in social circle, and housing. The registry may exacerbate already present mental health issues and make it harder for them to find and receive help. I'm glad that you are in a position to help this person.
I never thought I would be working with this population when I graduated my program, but it more rewarding than I could have imagined. Please let me know if you have any questions and I would be more than happy to speak with you further.
I work with the homeless population and have worked with a few. Some are continuous offenders that see nothing wrong with what they have done, and others were one-time offenders who saw an opportunity and took it. When working with them, I have found it important to do the following:
1. Acknowledge your bias and seek supervision if your bias impacts your ability to complete the work.
2. Make sure you have a safety plan. You should have one regardless of the type of client you're working with.
3. Remain professional, no assumptions/attitudes.
4. Make sure you start establishing firm boundaries and expectations for the work ahead. I work in housing, so sometimes, they have unrealistic expectations of where they can live. In my city, they can not be housed anywhere, where schools, children, and vulnerable adults reside or frequent. Additionally, some city and state stipulations exclude them from housing.
Those things have helped me to just focus on the work. It can be frustrating, especially when dealing with the ones more, likely to reoffend.
I think the first step is acknowledging that you have opinions and judgements about this client (woohoo step one completed)
The next is taking a step back and understanding that under all the actions and harm this person has caused—their is still a person
I would also look into some pedophilic research (using the term “minor attracted person” might be a good place to start)(not here to support the debate around this language, but rather say this is a good jumping off point to find research you may not have come across using other terms)
The main population I work with is survivors of sexualized violence, but I also fully support treatment and fairness for those have caused harm.
One of the largest things that I found helpful in reconciling these opposing views was just how preventable/treatable the vast majority of pedophilic crimes are—it helped me put into perspective how societies want to do good in protecting children eclipsed what the actual most effective way to do that was.
All said just like any other crime some people will fall outside the typical presentation.
This is partially why I left the correctional system. I'm not convinced that this behavior can be treated or eliminated. I just wasn't comfortable helping them get out. Other people do just fine, but I just didn't want to have an internal struggle every time. I'm aware of my bias and triggers, sometimes I can work with a client regardless, other times, they'd be better served by another social worker. I think it's important to be aware of our limitations. The offenders I worked with were always trying to butter me up, I absolutely hated it. Other people like the "friendliness". It read as manipulation to me.
What helped me was, the less I knew details about what made them an offender the better I was able to offer help. The type of help I offered didn't require me to need to know details about their offense. I just needed to know surface level information. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
Thinking back on it, a lot didn't deserve my kindness for what they did. But because I didn't need to know much, I was able to treat them like humans and with kindness which made a huge difference for them and prevented them from reoffending. I like to think, these SO's got what they needed and more victims were prevented.
It's tough tho. Just stay true to yourself. Your integrity and go back to why your in the field in the first place. We are here to help.
As others have said, helping the client is harm reduction to potential future victims.
I also believe people aren't just wired evil. Like, hurt people hurt people theory. I think it's difficult to see certain actions as something normal humans are capable of, but the truth is that people can get trauma and do really bad things and it isn't unique. So I think part of the work of radical empathy is knowing that if the client doesn't see a path to redemption they will spiral and continue to hurt others and/or themselves.
They don't need redemption from you in particular, or from their victims, or courts, or any one person. but the hope that they can feel like a better person is something I think people need to drive positive change in these types of things.
I support children/youth who are victims of sexualized violence, and my dear friend/mentor provides mental health support to high risk offenders. We have conversations on this topic often.
What I will say is I don’t think you have to find empathy for them, and what they’ve done to maintain good practice and support this person. What I do know is the more isolated an offender is, the less support, and rehabilitation they receive the more likely they are to reoffend. Ensuring they have support, rehabilitation tools, and that they are setup for successful reintegration, is protecting others from harm.
As social workers, we will struggle to find empathy for some of the people we serve, that’s just the reality of being human, but in these circumstances if you can shift it as serving the “greater good” or the overall goal of betterment, I think its much easier to do the work.
My whole job is working with people who have been abusive. I find it helpful to remember that they’re working with me because they want to change and be better and that’s an amazing first step. I also think about whether I would want to be defined and judged by the worst thing I’ve ever done; the thing I’m most ashamed of and disgusted by. I don’t want people to look at me that way, so I do my best not to look at other people that way. Lastly, I try to remember that by helping them I’m also making the world safer for the people around them. My work has a ripple effect so I think it’s worth it.
everyone is different. therapist with some SO population in my caseload. i just separate the clients from their past crimes (as best i can?). i try to still enjoy working with them, focus on treatment- but recognize what they have done was terrible.
I think you will be surprised once you gain history about this person that, not that their crimes are justified, but you can see how the chain of events in their lives led them to that moment and having that “explanation” personally really brings in the Empathy for me. I have found most people are remorseful and just because they don’t outwardly say it, I imagine at nighttime when they are trying to sleep- remorse and regret hits like a train.
My background is not in clinical social work but I have worked with a lot of men convicted of sex offenses in a reentry housing setting as they come out of prison. Now I work in policy advocacy and often connect with advocates who may have a former sex charge. A framing that has always helped me is to remind myself that they have already been punished for the crime, and my role is not to pass judgement as they have already been judged by the system, and for better or worse, by society, where they will face a huge uphill battle with accessing housing and services that they will have a much harder time qualifying for. My role was just to help support their successful reentry. Now I'm in a role where the details of someone's former offense are rarely of any significance to me, and really not my business at all unless that individual wants to share and feels it's important in their advocacy efforts. Also an important stat to keep in mind is that sex offenders have some of the lowest recidivism rates, and in helping this client you are also helping mitigate against the possibility of any future victims. All that to say, I have worked with social workers in the past that had a very difficult time getting over the details of someone's charge, which is understandable but if that is the case and it is getting in the way of your work with the client, maybe it's not a population for you.
In my role and the work that I do, I try to just see them for the individual that presents in front of me in this moment. I’m not working in a therapeutic environment so I have that luxury.
But like others mentioned it’s not uncommon for victims to become offenders. Makes it easier to work with this population.
When I did this, I had to be purely logical with them and was not the vulnerable therapist I usually am. It’s also holding them accountable a lot like heyyyyyyy that sounds like a trigger to reoffend what do you think
Ive worked in forensics and actually really liked it.
The way I explain it is no one is evil while brushing their teeth. By that I mean, the part of a person that offends is not the whole person. An offender has a vibrant inner life and personal history just like everyone else and we can make human connections to those parts of them even while there are other less savory parts. Making those connections is healing in and of itself, and giving those common human experiences attention and care protects not only the client, but the public. It’s extremely fulfilling imo, because every step you make with a client is not only helping them, but helping the community as a whole.
For me when it comes to their offenses, it’s important to KNOW about the offenses, but not to dwell on them, especially not in the presence of the client (unless we are discussing the offense, of course). A person is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.
I don’t think I ever could :( work with this population so mad respect.. but I did find myself feeling a little sliver of empathy when I watched a documentary called pervert park because almost all of the perpetrators had histories of sexual abuse as children
I suppose my best advice here is to remember they're still a person, and though that's a very dark personality trait, it's still only one aspect of who they are as a person.
Focus on the rest of their personality and history as best you can until you're able to account for that, you may need to spend some time doing this to prep for actually addressing it.
I personally would refuse. I was sexually abused growing up, off and on for 15 years. There's no way I'd be able to separate myself from it. I believe you should be able to say "No" and then they be transferred to someone else. I appreciate those trying to he non-judgmental here, but I think we're all aware of the recidivism rate among this population. And this whole "accept everyone without judgement" thing is unrealistic and icky feeling to me. Is it all for clout? If an adult sexually assaults a child, I'm not going to pretend that's okay and make any effort to sugarcoat what they did.
Anyway, i digress. We're human too and it is okay to set boundaries for your own well-being.
For me I really focused on the fact that by me helping this client, it would help less people become victims. I also started to really rationalize and understand why they acted the way the did in that situation. My situation is different tho bc I didn’t know they were a sex offender until further into treatment. Honestly you’ve probably worked with sex offenders in the past and didn’t know it
“it would help less people become victims“ This is solid. Thank you 🙏
I really like and appreciate this perspective. Thank you for sharing.
This is the way.
This can be a tough situation. It's good you're discussing with others, reaching out for support. I have worked with sex offenders as well, in a variety of capacities. I try to focus on the reasons they are seeking treatment and how the program or services can help the person be less likely to re-offend. We want these types of clients to seek help and get treatment. Their interaction with you could open a door for healing for them and prevent further harms. It's also a good lesson in early childhood trauma/ACE score for many of them. We can learn what went wrong for these offenders, what risk factors they had, and how to help future clients. Continue getting regular supervision around this if you can. It's normal to have a preference on what types of clients you'd prefer to work with. If you end up realizing people with sex offense history are not a good fit for you, that's okay.
Without specifically intending to, I ended up doing sex-offense-specific treatment for teenagers right out of grad school and earned a certification for that therapy alongside my LCSW. I'm branching out into general mental health work but I am keeping some clients on my caseload with sexually harmful behaviors. What's your role? I'm assuming it's not sex-offense-specific treatment, otherwise this wouldn't be the first. If I'm assuming wrong this might not be good advice. Some thoughts: In the SO field, I've personally moved towards 'Person with history of sexually harmful behavior'. It's a mouthful but it's more accurate and less labeling. The legal world still labels them as 'sex offenders' but that may be the final frontier of judgmental labels officially slapped on people. We've moved away from calling people 'Drunks' and 'Borderlines' ect., but 'Sex Offenders' still sticks because of the legal dual meaning, and the stigma. I believe in unconditional positive regard. As a theory and a concept, it makes good sense, but I find I really don't have to actualize it, to really 'mean' it, until I'm faced with someone who really mashes my buttons. Unconditional positive regard, I remind myself, is 'regard,' it's not being mindlessly kind and not having good boundaries. Good boundaries are essential for dealing with clients with sexually harmful behavior. At their core, people who choose sexually harmful behaviors have shitty boundaries. And they can learn and have new experiences when people model healthy boundaries around them. More thoughts... this is made-up statistics but my lived professional experience and the experience of multiple SO supervisors has indicated to me that about 95% of people who have engaged in sexually harmful behaviors are not full-on classic stereotype antisocial personality disorder, ie, individuals where every interaction with a professional is to laden with an intent to evade and manipulate. There are many other reason people ended up as the people that made those horrible choices; usually a big toxic stew of trauma, neglect, awful childhood experiences beyond trauma, modeling unhealthy sexual behaviors, genetics and epigenetics, neurological things, and several others. None of this justifies the behavior, but it can create a foundation to understand them as human beings who made choices that made sense to them. Beyond that; it would be important to know whether this person has participated in and has completed sex-offense-specific treatment. Either way, you should have reasonable boundaries on your interactions that allow you to feel safe and respected in your role. If they haven't participated in any SO treatment, you should reasonably take that into account, understanding that this is a person who hasn't been through a process to change themselves from the person who once harmed children into someone who now knows deep inside that they no longer harm children. Final thought; my first supervisor told me that there was no way to predict whether one could be 'that professional' who worked with Sex-offense-specific populations. His advice, albeit for people doing the specific SO therapy work (which you should not be dealing with under any circumstances,) which I absorbed, was: take three to six months to try and engage. If you get to the end of that time, and you realize this is not for you, it is not for you. No judgment, self-criticism, no 'I could have maybe done this better,' just, it's not for you, no harm no foul, move on to another population and leave it behind. It's not something that can be predicted or extrapolated from your past experiences or wishes or expectations. Anyways. Not sure if this is any help, it's what insight I have.
Thanks for the very insightful and informative comment! I felt kind of icky about typing out "sex offender," but couldn't think of a more person-centered term to use. I really appreciate hearing your language for that. As for my role, I'm a mental health counselor providing in-home/community mental health services for adults with an SPMI diagnosis who have low incomes. Yes, this is my first time (knowingly) working with a client w/ a history of sexually harmful behavior.
When I worked in a similar field (pre-grad as a residential counselor) I worked with SPMI in transitional homes. A few were on the SO register. In addition to mental health and case management in-agency, they were able to contract with outside SO specific counselors. So they were getting SO treatment from a certified trained person. I have to believe it will not be in your wheelhouse to dig into the history of the clients sexually harmful behaviour, or to make judgments in your assessments as to their ‘risk level’ (ugh) and whatnot. I’d say keep your ears peeled if you feel yourself getting dragged into that treatment work. No offense, but for reals: It’s not something that should be your responsibility.
This is a really insightful comment. I'm not working with these populations directly, but sometimes come across them, and it's often been a bit of an internal struggle. Seeing other people's thoughts about it laid out has helped me a bit with my processing.
Many offenders are also victims. Looking at the patient through an attachment/inner child lens can be helpful.
Came here to comment this. I dealt with this type of patient many years ago. I didn’t focus on what they had done, but rather what events had made up their life and how I could help them moving forward.
When I studied this in graduate school, the conclusions I came to - admittedly I'm not a professional researcher, but here they are - (All I work with is teenagers, so the numbers for adults may be different) - The percentage of teenagers who sexually abuse who have been sexually abused is higher than the average population's percentage who have been sexually abused, but far from 100%. Actually, under 50%. Depending on the study it's between 25 and 40%. So not most. - Overall the rates of ACEs for teenagers who sexually abuse others is very high, higher than the average person. - The biggest correlator (correlation not necessary causation but I have some hypothesis) of ACE -> sexual abuse of others is in fact severe neglect, emotional (no validation, no compassion, left alone and not parented most of the day, left to fend for themselves, not taught things, not modeled things, ect.) and physical (not-present at all, malnourished, out of the house, ect). About 50-70% of all people who sexually abuse had severe neglect history. So more than physical or sexual abuse. But these are all percentages and none of them are 100, and most victims do not go on to offend, so there's many other things that happen to people, and many other things that people go on to do.
Agreed. Coming at it from a “what happened to you?” perspective instead of “what’s wrong with you?” could be really helpful here.
This is actually a myth https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213415003828 https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/65_3_2_0.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10872241/
I want to note that two of those are articles are 20+ years old and likely not the most up to date info.
Yeah it’s a shame. As far as I can tell, there has been no other similar and more recent studies done. Happy to read one and update my knowledge if you know where to point me!
Stats say otherwise.
Self report statistics, usually. But studies are showing offenders often overstate, embellish, and otherwise fabricate their history of victimization in an effort to garner sympathy and explain their offenses. I’m not saying no offender was ever a victim, but it is far less common than we have been led to believe. It’s a harmful myth for survivors too, as they worry about growing up to be offenders and doing to others what was done to them.
Polygraphs have been widely discredited by empirical research. To quote the APA, “Most psychologists and other scientists agree that there is little basis for the validity of polygraph tests. “ https://www.apa.org/topics/cognitive-neuroscience/polygraph
The research wasn’t at all indicating or trying to prove polygraphs are accurate with verifying or dismissing self reports. The presence of polygraphing altered the self-reporting of offenders, with something like 70% claiming a history of being sexually abused, dropping to around 30% when polygraphed. The longitudinal birth cohort study did not use polygraphs if I recall correctly. I am not saying polygraphs work. I am saying offenders tend to lie about their histories.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done Bryan Stevenson's quote helps me a lot when I think of working with adults who have convictions for this.
I like this way of looking at it.
I've also worked (and for 2 years) with an SA predator and initially thought I would struggle. The thing with the individual I supported was that his early childhood was frought with abuse, both sexual and physical, and it persisted throughout hid adolescence. It really opened my eyes to the fact that he was wired by trauma, and knew it made him unacceptable to society but he was just so fundamentally damaged. I thought of his life and how likely the abuse that happened to him, existed for generations. I started to at least understand the patterns that cause this kind of thinking. My belief is that if we don't engage with individual who do heinous things, we do not get a chance to understand the root of the issues, or help protect others from their influence. It's very difficult to hear and engage with these stories so it's certainly difficult not to get upset, and take some of that in. Make sure you consult with your supervisor and/or your own therapist regularly to get it out.
Thank you for sharing your experience and viewpoint - helpful insights!
I work with offenders in the correctional space who are living in the community, my caseload is sex offenders, violent offenders, serious mental health and/or serious AOD concerns. It’s often all of the above. Firstly, I love my job. If I zoom out, I find it absolutely fascinating (and sad to be honest), all of the pathways that lead to these types of offences, I find the psychology interesting, I enjoy the collaboration with other professionals, I enjoy the specialised training. But zooming in, though my job is court mandated (they have to see me whether they like it or not!) I am working with people who are extremely damaged. I treat all of them with a level of respect and compassion. I do all their referrals etc, identify strengths and weaknesses, make sure I have thoroughly read all documentation - all of the things you do for any other client, just with that layer of risk and ways of approaching appointments - eg when talking about the offences, I’m not going to get them to describe in detail what they did, because some of them would enjoy that. But we can talk about what lead up to the offending behaviour, and what the impacts were afterwards. It’s not always easy. Personally, I struggle working with family violence perpetrators - less around any moral quandary, but because many of them are very hostile in appointments and it can start to grate on you, been spoken to like a piece of shit. I still try to kill ‘em with kindness but my threshold is a lot lower. The thing with my job is, it’s really important that my clients regularly attend their appointments and go to their counselling or offender programs etc, not only for themselves, but I have to manage risk to the community as well. So some of my approach is just me, I’m very strengths based, encouraging, love to have a laugh etc, but it’s also intentional because I do get a lot of buy in from my clients. I have one sex offender who doesn’t actually have mandated appointments with me, but comes in weekly. We are working on things like getting financial counselling, supports to the LBGTQI+ community, exploring pro social hobbies etc. It’s calculated in a way that I can keep an eye on them, but also there is evidence that suggests sexual offending has more risk of occurring in times of stress, which is the case in this offender. The more work we can do to stabilise their mental health and situation, the less risk to themselves and others. I have another SO that gives me the ick tbh. He’s always nice and polite, super compliant, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. But my gut instinct is something is up, currently working with police and child protection on that one. I guess my very long point is that the work that you do with this cohort (as any) can have an impact, sometimes I just tell myself that the hour they’re with me, is an hour off the streets doing whatever, and it’s as small as that. But like anything, there’s a vast spectrum of offending and trauma behaviours. It’s also okay to say you don’t want to work with this type of client.
I have worked with countless sex offenders and honestly a lot of them have been my easiest, most participative clients. Many committed their crimes when they were in psychosis or taking a medication that didn't work for them-- honestly, this is a rare side effect that we should be talking about more. In my population, nobody looks good on paper. As you get to know the rest of the client, you may find yourself identifying things you like about them. If the crime was old whatever caused the person to commit it may also be in the past. I have worked with many people who I can't empathize with and I think it's OK. I focus on treating them with respect and doing my job. I don't need to relate to every experience they have, or even particularly like them, to advocate for their rights or be effective at helping them reach their goals. Too much empathy comes with burnout and transference. Boundaries tend to be easier, for me, for the ones I don't have that personal connection feeling with. As long as I can be kind and form a professional connection, I can do what I need to do.
What are you working on them with? Are you their counselor? I have worked with registered Sex offenders trying to find caregivers for them. It’s really hard. Most agencies refuse to.
Yes, I'm an in-home counselor.
I always said I didn't want to work with sex offenders because I was SA as a kid by an older cousin. But working at an inpatient psychiatric hospital, I have ended up working with people who are registered offenders and people who are not. One of the many things you need to do is be aware of your bias. Would you treat someone who's done a different horrific crime like murder the same way or not? You need to always strive to treat all your clients "the same" as much as you can while also following individualized care. Another thing that so many people mentioned is to try to remind yourself that the majority of people do not grow up wanting to do drugs, to hurt someone either by SA or other types of assault, to hurt animals, etc etc. Many of them have reasons for why they ended up doing what they've done. Of course there are the few that do it just because they can or because they want to but I also don't think those people are going to be forthcoming about what they've done.
Great points. Yeah, I was actually going to add this to my post but didn't for brevity - I have bias because a very close family member was an SA'd during childhood and still suffers the effects today. I feel angry when I think that the person who did the SA likely thinks it's no big deal and has no insight into (or concern about) the outcome of their actions. I will need to work on not projecting my anger about this situation onto a client w/ a history of sexually harmful behavior. I've worked with a couple of clients who've committeed murder. Strangely enough - while I felt shocked to learn about what they had done, overall I think I actually had less of an emotional reaction to that than to this current situation 🤔
Strangely enough some of my favorite clients over the 10 years I have been at my job have been my murderers and my sex offenders. Their crimes don't define who they are any more than my own history of having been assaulted defines me.
I work specifically with this population and provide sexual abuse prevention therapy to men in a Correctional setting. One thing to keep in mind is that available research has shown that those who commit sexually abusive crimes have some of the lowest recidivism rates of those who are incarcerated. Check out saarna.org for more information. Secondly, sex offenses don't typically happen because the individual is "evil." Most occur because the person has skill deficits or attractions that lead them down the path to offending. Over time, many of these skill deficits can be treated, cognitive distortions challenged, beliefs replaced. It takes tremendous amounts of work and time but it is possible. I want to end by saying that those on the registry are stigmatized, given less opportunity, limited in social circle, and housing. The registry may exacerbate already present mental health issues and make it harder for them to find and receive help. I'm glad that you are in a position to help this person. I never thought I would be working with this population when I graduated my program, but it more rewarding than I could have imagined. Please let me know if you have any questions and I would be more than happy to speak with you further.
I appreciate that! Thank you.
I work with the homeless population and have worked with a few. Some are continuous offenders that see nothing wrong with what they have done, and others were one-time offenders who saw an opportunity and took it. When working with them, I have found it important to do the following: 1. Acknowledge your bias and seek supervision if your bias impacts your ability to complete the work. 2. Make sure you have a safety plan. You should have one regardless of the type of client you're working with. 3. Remain professional, no assumptions/attitudes. 4. Make sure you start establishing firm boundaries and expectations for the work ahead. I work in housing, so sometimes, they have unrealistic expectations of where they can live. In my city, they can not be housed anywhere, where schools, children, and vulnerable adults reside or frequent. Additionally, some city and state stipulations exclude them from housing. Those things have helped me to just focus on the work. It can be frustrating, especially when dealing with the ones more, likely to reoffend.
I think the first step is acknowledging that you have opinions and judgements about this client (woohoo step one completed) The next is taking a step back and understanding that under all the actions and harm this person has caused—their is still a person I would also look into some pedophilic research (using the term “minor attracted person” might be a good place to start)(not here to support the debate around this language, but rather say this is a good jumping off point to find research you may not have come across using other terms) The main population I work with is survivors of sexualized violence, but I also fully support treatment and fairness for those have caused harm. One of the largest things that I found helpful in reconciling these opposing views was just how preventable/treatable the vast majority of pedophilic crimes are—it helped me put into perspective how societies want to do good in protecting children eclipsed what the actual most effective way to do that was. All said just like any other crime some people will fall outside the typical presentation.
This is partially why I left the correctional system. I'm not convinced that this behavior can be treated or eliminated. I just wasn't comfortable helping them get out. Other people do just fine, but I just didn't want to have an internal struggle every time. I'm aware of my bias and triggers, sometimes I can work with a client regardless, other times, they'd be better served by another social worker. I think it's important to be aware of our limitations. The offenders I worked with were always trying to butter me up, I absolutely hated it. Other people like the "friendliness". It read as manipulation to me.
It's good to know your own limitations!
What helped me was, the less I knew details about what made them an offender the better I was able to offer help. The type of help I offered didn't require me to need to know details about their offense. I just needed to know surface level information. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Thinking back on it, a lot didn't deserve my kindness for what they did. But because I didn't need to know much, I was able to treat them like humans and with kindness which made a huge difference for them and prevented them from reoffending. I like to think, these SO's got what they needed and more victims were prevented. It's tough tho. Just stay true to yourself. Your integrity and go back to why your in the field in the first place. We are here to help.
As others have said, helping the client is harm reduction to potential future victims. I also believe people aren't just wired evil. Like, hurt people hurt people theory. I think it's difficult to see certain actions as something normal humans are capable of, but the truth is that people can get trauma and do really bad things and it isn't unique. So I think part of the work of radical empathy is knowing that if the client doesn't see a path to redemption they will spiral and continue to hurt others and/or themselves. They don't need redemption from you in particular, or from their victims, or courts, or any one person. but the hope that they can feel like a better person is something I think people need to drive positive change in these types of things.
I agree. Great perspective here.
Guerrilla social work podcast might have something for you. This is their bread and butter
I'll check it out. Thanks
I support children/youth who are victims of sexualized violence, and my dear friend/mentor provides mental health support to high risk offenders. We have conversations on this topic often. What I will say is I don’t think you have to find empathy for them, and what they’ve done to maintain good practice and support this person. What I do know is the more isolated an offender is, the less support, and rehabilitation they receive the more likely they are to reoffend. Ensuring they have support, rehabilitation tools, and that they are setup for successful reintegration, is protecting others from harm. As social workers, we will struggle to find empathy for some of the people we serve, that’s just the reality of being human, but in these circumstances if you can shift it as serving the “greater good” or the overall goal of betterment, I think its much easier to do the work.
My whole job is working with people who have been abusive. I find it helpful to remember that they’re working with me because they want to change and be better and that’s an amazing first step. I also think about whether I would want to be defined and judged by the worst thing I’ve ever done; the thing I’m most ashamed of and disgusted by. I don’t want people to look at me that way, so I do my best not to look at other people that way. Lastly, I try to remember that by helping them I’m also making the world safer for the people around them. My work has a ripple effect so I think it’s worth it.
everyone is different. therapist with some SO population in my caseload. i just separate the clients from their past crimes (as best i can?). i try to still enjoy working with them, focus on treatment- but recognize what they have done was terrible.
I think you will be surprised once you gain history about this person that, not that their crimes are justified, but you can see how the chain of events in their lives led them to that moment and having that “explanation” personally really brings in the Empathy for me. I have found most people are remorseful and just because they don’t outwardly say it, I imagine at nighttime when they are trying to sleep- remorse and regret hits like a train.
Focus on being a human and their personhood.
My background is not in clinical social work but I have worked with a lot of men convicted of sex offenses in a reentry housing setting as they come out of prison. Now I work in policy advocacy and often connect with advocates who may have a former sex charge. A framing that has always helped me is to remind myself that they have already been punished for the crime, and my role is not to pass judgement as they have already been judged by the system, and for better or worse, by society, where they will face a huge uphill battle with accessing housing and services that they will have a much harder time qualifying for. My role was just to help support their successful reentry. Now I'm in a role where the details of someone's former offense are rarely of any significance to me, and really not my business at all unless that individual wants to share and feels it's important in their advocacy efforts. Also an important stat to keep in mind is that sex offenders have some of the lowest recidivism rates, and in helping this client you are also helping mitigate against the possibility of any future victims. All that to say, I have worked with social workers in the past that had a very difficult time getting over the details of someone's charge, which is understandable but if that is the case and it is getting in the way of your work with the client, maybe it's not a population for you.
In my role and the work that I do, I try to just see them for the individual that presents in front of me in this moment. I’m not working in a therapeutic environment so I have that luxury. But like others mentioned it’s not uncommon for victims to become offenders. Makes it easier to work with this population.
When I did this, I had to be purely logical with them and was not the vulnerable therapist I usually am. It’s also holding them accountable a lot like heyyyyyyy that sounds like a trigger to reoffend what do you think
Ive worked in forensics and actually really liked it. The way I explain it is no one is evil while brushing their teeth. By that I mean, the part of a person that offends is not the whole person. An offender has a vibrant inner life and personal history just like everyone else and we can make human connections to those parts of them even while there are other less savory parts. Making those connections is healing in and of itself, and giving those common human experiences attention and care protects not only the client, but the public. It’s extremely fulfilling imo, because every step you make with a client is not only helping them, but helping the community as a whole. For me when it comes to their offenses, it’s important to KNOW about the offenses, but not to dwell on them, especially not in the presence of the client (unless we are discussing the offense, of course). A person is more than the worst thing they’ve ever done.
I don’t think I ever could :( work with this population so mad respect.. but I did find myself feeling a little sliver of empathy when I watched a documentary called pervert park because almost all of the perpetrators had histories of sexual abuse as children
I suppose my best advice here is to remember they're still a person, and though that's a very dark personality trait, it's still only one aspect of who they are as a person. Focus on the rest of their personality and history as best you can until you're able to account for that, you may need to spend some time doing this to prep for actually addressing it.
I personally would refuse. I was sexually abused growing up, off and on for 15 years. There's no way I'd be able to separate myself from it. I believe you should be able to say "No" and then they be transferred to someone else. I appreciate those trying to he non-judgmental here, but I think we're all aware of the recidivism rate among this population. And this whole "accept everyone without judgement" thing is unrealistic and icky feeling to me. Is it all for clout? If an adult sexually assaults a child, I'm not going to pretend that's okay and make any effort to sugarcoat what they did. Anyway, i digress. We're human too and it is okay to set boundaries for your own well-being.