Abstract

While there is a growing interest for the role of cognitive distortions, data suggests specific cognitive impairments (trait and state) in problematic sexual behaviors, particularly in child sexual offending. Among the dimensions likely to play an important role, cognitive insight, the capacity for introspection and criticism of one's own beliefs, appears to be a relevant factor both for the evaluation and the care of the Sexual Offenders (SO). The purpose of this article is to improve understanding of insight’s role, especially its articulation with cognitive distortions, in the explanation of sexual assault. For this purpose, levels of insight and cognitive distortions were compared between SO and non-SO matched by gender, age and level of education. In addition, particular attention was paid to control the effects of anxiety, depression and social desirability. The results show an inverse correlation between cognitive insight’s level and cognitive distortions for the Child SO. These results will be discussed in terms of both scientific and therapeutic perspectives. More precisely, it may be expected that clinical work on insight may reducing the level of cognitive distortions and thereby promote the effectiveness of the proposed interventions.