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Purpose: The aim was to test whether dynamic criminogenic risk factors change after participation in a new cognitive-behavioral treatment program adhering to the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model, within a group of adult men convicted of a sexual offense in Sweden.

Methods: Three psychometric tests from approximately 26 participants were completed. Therapists rated 46 participants using the Therapist Rating Scale-2 (TRS-2).

Results: Participants reported a significant decrease in hypersexuality, small to medium effect size, a non-significant, increased, internal locus of control, but no change regarding attachment styles, posttreatment. Therapists rated significant decrease in all treatment needs posttreatment, medium to large effect size.

Conclusions: The significant reduction of several criminogenic risk factors posttreatment indicates the treatment program may reduce problems related to increased risk of recidivism, especially hypersexuality. Moreover, treatment did not appear to have negative effects, motivating further implementation. However, to evaluate the effectiveness, more research is necessary.

Life-course criminology has demonstrated the importance of social relationships and life transitions to understand desistance. Yet, individuals convicted of sexual offenses seem to differ in terms of turning points, where treatment is suggested as salient to their desistance processes. Drawing on 13 teller-focused interviews with adult male incarcerated participants in a new Swedish sex offender program, this paper examines the treatment experience and the under-explored aspect of early desistance, as well as the role of society and social relations in the treatment process, through a practice-oriented lens. The thematic analysis suggests participants started developing desisting narrative identities where micro turning points in treatment contributed to offenses being explained and re-integrated into a sense of the self as an acceptable person. The process, which also enabled active responsibility, seemed to be facilitated by a holistic, person-centered treatment environment. Nonetheless, continued desistance requires adequate attention to social support and stigma management post-release.

Many convicted individuals do not enter or complete treatment programs in prisons, which limits effective rehabilitation and prevention of recidivism. Treatment readiness is suggested to be an important construct when addressing this problem. Nevertheless, the underlying processes (e.g., how readiness factors interact) are not well studied, and even less is known regarding readiness in the sub-population of individuals convicted of sexual offenses. This paper aims to open up the “black box” and explore psychosocial and context-specific processes behind treatment readiness from the vantage point of the individuals’ lived experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 adult men convicted of sexual offenses in Swedish prisons, treatment participants (N = 13) as well as non-participants (N = 6). The thematic analysis illustrates readiness obstacles in terms of unintended antagonistic forces in the correctional system operating in the opposite direction of rehabilitative objectives. Nonetheless, a hypothesized relational mechanism, looping disruption, initiated by a non-punitive and supportive response (from prison staff, therapists, close ones, or inmates) to the convicted individual’s negative behaviors or emotions, appeared to reverse such negative, punitive loops, contributing to the mobilization of treatment readiness. Implications for theory, policy, and practice are discussed.