Introduction to the special issue on relapse prevention

Abstract

Relapse prevention (RP) has become the most popular model for structuring the treatment of sex offenders. It is therefore appropriate to examine, in some detail, the model's adequacy and application. The papers brought together in this special issue cover several themes. First, the belief is reflected that, to progress, models and their component elements need to be subjected to critical scrutiny from a theoretical perspective. Second, the empirical support for the application of the model needs to be examined, particularly in comparison to other treatment approaches. Third, the current form of the broad RP model as applied to sex offenders is described and, in concert with other papers in this issue, raises the important issue of motivation for treatment. Finally, we argue that there is much to be gained from viewing sexual offending simply as a problem behavior process rather than as a relapse or offense.