A judge may not grant deferred adjudication for indecency with a child, sexual assault, aggravated assault, incest, indecent exposure, possession or promotion of child pornography, or sexual performance by a child if the defendant has previously been placed on community supervision for any of these sex crimes. For any of these sex crimes, however, an offender may be placed on community supervision only once, whether through deferred adjudication or upon conviction. In granting deferred adjudication for sex offenders, a judge may impose any reasonable condition, including strict monitoring and treatment, but these conditions are not mandatory. Cognitive-behavioral programs, which vary in length and setting, are designed to break through the offender's denial and then use individual and group techniques to challenge beliefs and perceptions the offender uses to support his deviant behavior. It requires offenders to attend weekly counseling with a registered provider of sex-offender treatment.
Offenders initially attend individual sessions and then proceed to group sessions.
They are also monitored and assessed by means of the clinical polygraph, the plethysmograph, and the Abel screen. Use of the polygraph follows guidelines approved by Texas' Joint Polygraph Committee on Offender Testing, which other states are now adopting. The plethysmograph, a diagnostic test used to measure arousal by sexual material, provides information on the offender's progress during treatment. The Abel screen, a computer-driven test, provides a measure of deviant sexual interests and extensive details about the offender's history, degree of control, and other information. It can be used to determine clients most likely to repeat a sex crime and to identify the most dangerous and least dangerous clients.