Throughout the years, people have always wondered what motivates a sexual offender to keep reoffending and whether these acts are random or not. However, this subject has been very controversial and very broad. Although theorists have come up with several theories of why sexual offenders commit such acts and keep reoffending, there tends to be another explanation. According to Terry, the offense cycle describes several “cognitive processes that the offender uses to be able to continue offending” (Terry, 2014, pg. 71) The cycle of sexual offending is an extremely important factor in understanding how an offender’s deviant sexual behavior develops and can move into acting out. There are several phases in the offense cycle that sexual offenders
These negative thoughts often lead to self-pity and negative feelings, such as anger, frustration, and loneliness. The feeling of loneliness leads to the perception of social isolation. These offenders start believing that there is no other way of obtaining their sexual pleasures, which leads to the development of sexual deviant behavior. What must be kept in mind is that these thoughts may even cross a married individual’s mind. Once the individual gets attached in the walk-through of their fantasies, he or she begins to plan their abusive act on their suitable target. As soon as the individual is done planning out their attack, they initiate the grooming of their victim. Grooming in this cycle refers to the process of manipulating the “potential victim into complying with the sexual abuse” (Terry, 2014, pg. 73). Regarding the process of grooming victims, most offenders deny that they do such thing. As a matter of fact, there are various grooming tactics and some are more common than others. Some of the grooming tactics are seduction and testing of a child, surprising the victim, verbal or physical coercion, masking sex as a game, and emotional and verbal
Later on, they enter the justification phase of the cycle of sexual offending. This is when offenders blame their behavior on external factors, such as stress and alcohol, which are seen as triggers. However, cognitive distortions play a significant role. Cognitive distortions allow the continuation of abuse without feeling guilty. This is where rationalization plays a role. It occurs when offenders neutralize their feelings of wrongdoings through excuses and justifications for their behavior. Cognitive distortions are a concept of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy that refer to biased ways of thinking about oneself and the world around us. According to Pomerantz, “Beck and his followers have identified and defined a list of common thought distortions” (Pomerantz, 2017, pg. 380). Some of the common thought distortions in sexual offenders are magnification/minimization and