The information in this program outline is provided by the program representative and edited by the CEBC staff. The Vicarious Sensitization (VS) program has been rated by the CEBC in the area of: Sexual Behavior Problems in Adolescents, Treatment of.

• Types of Maltreatment: Does not target any specific kind of maltreatment
• Target Population: Adolescent sex offenders

VS is a form of aversive conditioning for the treatment of teenage boys who molest younger children. The VS program is a series of individualized computer-based sessions using software, a personalized recorded audio fantasy, and aversive audio/video stimuli. Each session consists of a series of sequences in which the client is exposed to a recorded personal fantasy designed to evoke arousal, followed immediately by an aversive video vignette. The aversive stimuli consist of audio/video portrayals (on DVD) of adolescent sex offenders who must contend with the negative social, emotional, physical, and legal consequences of their crimes against young children. As with other conditioning procedures, many trials are necessary for cues associated with illicit sexual activity to evoke anxiety rather than deviant fantasies or actual abuse.

VS is intended to be an adjunct to offense-specific cognitive therapy, not a substitute for it.

The goal of VS is the reduction of deviant arousal in adolescent sex offenders.