Relapse prevention with juvenile sexual abusers

Although a mainstay of most juvenile and adult sexual offender treatment programmes today, relapse prevention originated nearly two decades ago as a treatment for substance abuse (Brownell et al., 1986; Marlatt and George, 1984). The model, as conceived by Marlatt and colleagues, reflected an attempt to explain the acquisition and reoccurrence of addictive behaviours. While Marlatt’s original model has been criticised for its lack of theoretical consistency, it is generally based on the tenants of social learning theory and an understanding of the influence of attributions on motivational processes (Hudson and Ward, 1996).