Self-reported methods of cessation of adult male child abusers: a pilot study

This pilot study explored the pre-arrest self-selected cessation attempts of sexual offenders (N = 109) who abused children and often others. Four participants were dropped because of invalid responding (N = 104). While 74.3% of sample participants reported attempts to decrease or stop their sexual offending prior to arrest, 56% out of 100 who responded to the cessation question reported that they were able to do so. Self-efficacy was examined as a potential predictive variable of cessation attempts and success of attempts; however, no relationship was found between self-efficacy and attempts. Practice and research implications are discussed.