A realistic objective of treatment is to provide sex offenders with the tools to manage their inappropriate behavior. A therapist can teach many offenders self-management skills for avoiding high-risk situations through the identification of decisions and events that precede them and through the correction of their thought distortions. Therapists must obtain full disclosure of offenders' sexual histories to provide safe and effective sex offender treatment. In addition, sex offenders must carefully assess their lives and identify relationships, emotional states, attitudes, and behaviors that they may consider normal but that are not acceptable to the larger community. The use of the polygraph helps ensure that offenders fully reveal their sexual histories. Polygraph testing is also useful for periodic monitoring of the offender in treatment and focuses on the offender's activities in the community. Deceptive results flag areas that the treatment provider and the supervising officer need to examine further. The polygraph information should be used in conjunction with other information when making decisions about case management of sex offenders. 42 references (Author abstract modified)