Social Skills Training With a Sex Offender

Abstract

A social skills training program consisting of direct teaching, modeling, behavior rehearsal, video feedback, and social reinforcement designed to assist an incarcerated young sex offender with social skills deficits is described. Pre- and posttraining videotaped behavioral records of an interaction with a young female, self-report questionnaires, and staff reports all indicated an increase in socially skilled behavior. A 1-year follow-up subsequent to the patient’s release from prison showed no recurrence of offending. The results are discussed in terms of the kinds of offender likely to benefit from social skills training and the need for evaluative research.