Ward and Hudson developed a multiple pathway model of the relapse prevention process for sex offenders based on self-regulation theory. Self-regulation pertains to a person's ability to identify and suppress problematic behaviors, which also involves the ability to enhance and maintain positive emotional states and behaviors that become protective factors against problematic behaviors. Although such abilities would seem to be less likely in intellectually disabled sex offenders, a review of the literature on intellectually disabled sex offenders suggests the possibility of their self-regulation through Ward and Hudson's "approach-automatic" pathway to relapse prevention. Offenders who follow this pathway engage in habitual offending behavior in an impulsive manner that involves minimal planning. Such a pathway seems to fit the pattern for many intellectually disabled sex offenders. For sex offenders who follow this pathway, Ward and Hudson suggest that relapse prevention efforts focus on increasing offenders' awareness of the habitual behavioral script they are following and the external cues that tend to activate the behaviors. Treatment targets should focus on gaining awareness of and control of the external cues and the habitual, conditioned response to them. The effectiveness of such an approach to relapse prevention with intellectually disabled offenders, however, remains to be proven. 1 figure and 54 references