How to Listen to a Sex Offender’s Story

Multimedia Perspectives in Sex Offender Treatment, Policy, and Research

“How to Listen to A Sex Offender’s Story” is a podcast that provides listeners with insight into the practical application of sexual offender treatment. The listening experience is meant to inform audiences about how providers manage their moral disgust in listening to disclosures of sexual abuse perpetuation. Podcasting allows for listeners to hear the nuances in the voice of the storyteller. It allows us to hear a story told by a first hand account as opposed to the distance of the written description. With podcasting, listeners hear the voice of the narrator which adds a human quality to story telling and emphasizes the person in the topic. As clinicians, sexual offender treatment providers listen for the psychological dynamics that supported or mitigated the offender’s behavior. Practitioners who provide sexual offender treatment have years of on-the-ground training, as well as continuing education and active participation in supervision. Listening ethically is the cornerstone of building a therapeutic relationship with the sexual offender in treatment and, vice versa, the pathway for the rehabilitation for many sexual offenders. This podcast episode provides listeners with an opportunity to hear the potential therapeutic impact of effective psychosocial intervention with sexual offenders.