Cognitive Distortions AO3

• Cause and effect: is minimalisation a result of a crime getting committed or the cause?
• Social desirability bias: is minimalisation used to justify actions?
• Understanding cognitive distortions has proven beneficial in the treatment of offenders. Rehabilitation of sex offenders uses CBT to encourage offender to ‘face’ their crimes and establish less distorted views of their actions. Reducing minimalisation in therapy is highly correlated with a reduced risk of reoffending and a key feature of anger management.
• Heller et al. worked with a group of young men from Chicago who were mainly form disadvantaged groups. They used CBT to reduce judgement and decision making errors (cognitive distortions). Those participants who attended 13 one-hour sessions had a 44 % reduction in arrests compared to a control group. This suggests CBT can be effective in helping rehabilitate people