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The modification of denial, defensiveness, and cognitive distortions and the enhancement of victim empathy are central components in the treatment of pedophilic sex offenders (PSOs) and are thus important factors to evaluate. This review of the literature highlights three broad problems with self-report measures of these variables. First, the psychometric properties of measures vary enormously, with some having no established validity or reliability. Second, the purpose of the measure is generally quite transparent, enabling the respondent to easily pick the socially acceptable responses. Finally, it is difficult to determine which are the best measures to use in assessing PSOs. Measures range from those designed for the general public to those designed specifically for PSOs. Also, they range from those that assess broad processes (e.g., general empathy) to those that assess offensespecific variables (e.g., victim empathy). This article argues that these issues need to be addressed to improve both the assessment of these processes among PSOs and the evaluation of treatment programs for PSOs.

Motivation for behaviour change is considered a crucial issue in the treatment of sex offenders, including child molesters. However, there has been no systematic investigation of this issue. This paper reviews the validity of the constructs of the Trans-theoretical Model of Behaviour Change to act as a framework to investigate motivation for behaviour change among child molesters. Constructs within this theory are the Stages of Change, Processes of Change and Decisional Balance. The utility of these constructs to act as a framework to investigate motivation among child molesters is assessed by reviewing their utility as measures of motivation for behaviour change generally, and by reviewing their relevance to child molesters. It is concluded that the constructs of the Trans-theoretical Model of Behaviour Change are valid measures of motivation and have some general relevance to child molesters. It is therefore concluded that they have some utility to investigate motivation to change among child molesters. Copyright  2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTIONMotivation for behaviour change is considered a crucial issue in the treatment of sex offenders, including child molesters (Garland and Dougher, 1991;Kear-Colwell and Pollock, 1997). A review of the literature related to child molesters indicates that: (1) they are typically viewed as being unmotivated to change their sexual offending behaviour (Bernard, 1975;Garland and Dougher, 1991); (2) of assessing their motivation to change their sexual offending behaviour; (3) where motivation is assessed, there is some disagreement about who should be targeted for treatment-the most motivated as they are considered to be more likely to benefit from treatment or, the least motivated because they are the most likely to re-offend (Marshall, 1994); (4) the enhancement of motivation to change sexual offending behaviour is an oftencited treatment goal (Grubin and Thornton, 1994;Lee et al., 1996;Allam et al., 1997); and (5), the motivation of child molesters to change their sexually offending behaviour has been associated with therapist variables (Garland and Dougher, 1991) and the offender's cognitive distortions (Kennedy and Grubin, 1992), victim empathy (Hidlebran and Pithers, 1989), treatment participation (Marshall, 1993) and recidivism (Furby et al., 1989). Although Motivation for Behaviour Change 177the literature has canvassed the role of motivation in theorizing about child molesters, it has not been systematically investigated (Garland and Dougher, 1991) and as such, an investigation of this issue is a priority. A better understanding of motivational factors related to behaviour change among child molesters would contribute to improving treatment programmes designed to modify sexual offending behaviour.The Stages of Change construct of the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change (TMBC, Prochaska and DiClemente, 1982), has been proposed as being relevant to understanding motivation for change among sex offenders generally, and child molesters specifically (Gar...

A better understanding of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children would improve treatment programmes designed to modify sexual offending behaviour. However, investigation of this issue is limited by lack of theoretically and empirically sound measures of motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders. This paper reports on two studies that were conducted to investigate the psychometric properties (validity, reliability, and social desirability) of the Stages of Change Questionnaire, adapted to measure motivation for behaviour change among sex offenders against children. In Study 1, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed for sex offenders against children (n 0/36) who were on a treatment waiting list. In Study 2, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire were assessed for sex offenders against children (n 0/47) at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, and post-treatment. Both studies supported the validity and reliability of the adapted Stages of Change Questionnaire, and the influence of social desirability upon responding was less than expected. The results of this investigation supported the potential utility of the Stages of Change Questionnaire as a measure of motivation for behaviour change for sex offenders against children.

The modification of deviant cognitions and the enhancement of victim empathy are central components in many treatment programs for sex offenders. There appear to be three broad problems with self-report measures of these factors: variations in the psychometric evaluation of measures; the transparency of items and thus the likely influence of social desirability; and the difficulty of determining which measures are specific to particular types of sex offenders. The aim of this study was to investigate these three issues among child molesters (CMs), and men convicted of sex offences against adults (ASOs). Data were collected from 36 CMs and 31 ASOs and from two comparison groups (33 men convicted of nonsexual offences and 40 nonoffenders from the community), to assess the reliability (internal and test-retest) and validity (discriminant, construct, and face) of measures, the influence of sexual social desirability on responding and the specificity of measures to both sex offender groups. Collectively, the results raise issues related to the assessment of sex offenders that require further investigation. They also have theoretical implications about the relationship between cognitive and emotive processes among sex offenders.