A cost-benefit analysis on effective sex offender treatment concluded that treatment saves taxpayer dollars. Sex offenses present a concern because they are high-profile crimes, but they are infrequent compared with other crimes. Incarceration or any other penalty the criminal justice system can impose has proven to be a largely ineffective deterrent and incapable of changing sex offenders' behavior. Physical treatments such as psychosurgery, castration, and pharmacological approaches all involve difficulties. Most articles devoted to psychological treatment, especially behavioral or cognitive-behavioral treatment, note that these treatments share the component of behavioral techniques aimed at normalizing deviant sexual preferences. Other common components include training in social competence, sex education, anger management, and relapse prevention. The literature also indicates that relapse prevention is a more realistic therapeutic goal than is cure. It relies on multiple rather than single sources of information about offender behavior; integrates mental health, parole, and probation professionals; and defines behavioral maintenance as a continuum rather than an abstinence-relapse dichotomy. Current research on sex offenders involves many methodological and measurement issues. Some authors recommend improving sex offender treatment though revisions of current treatment approaches, as well as improving assessments through the use of proximal measures such as offenders' cognitions and empathy. 17 reference notes