In fact, one of the men in the Saturday group reports that he has just seen a man in his apartment unit who resembles the last of his 30 victims. Taylor is obviously shaken: This particular victim committed suicide while Taylor was in prison.

Before he was arrested, Taylor had been a trusted man in his community who became a supervisor of adolescent boys. At a home owned by another child molester, Taylor groomed a series of primarily adolescent boys and molested them. (Taylor was abused by a man when he was young. Henger says 30 percent of male sex offenders were sexually abused as children. "One of the gifts that keeps on giving," he comments to the group.)

Taylor acknowledges in the meeting that his response to the victim look-alike gave him a "wake-up call" to alter his attitudes. In the group, Taylor has taken responsibility for his victim's death. However, Henger imagines that seeing someone who looked like this victim "hit Taylor in the solar plexus. It brought him back to the reality of how he needs to guard himself against his attraction to adolescents."

Henger is aware of the urgency in his work -- one out of four women and one out of seven men are sexually abused before the age of 18 -- and he describes his goal as "getting into the minds of the men and changing them to protect future victims." But he also believes that the media perpetuates an unrealistic image of sex offenders as "monsters" who nearly always go back to committing crimes after incarceration. He cites as a glaring example a TV show in which a reporter claimed that 90 percent of sex offenders revert to criminal behavior.

Experts in the field are reluctant to give a general figure for the rate of recidivism among sex offenders, who recidivate after incarceration at different rates over different periods of time, depending on the type of crimes committed. In the issue of "Psychology, Public Policy, and Law" published in spring 1998, researchers found that the rate of recidivism ranged from the low teens to more than 50 percent. In a recent phone interview, Dr. Fred Berlin, a researcher, clinician and teacher at the Sexual Disorders Clinic at Johns Hopkins University, said that "overall" an estimated 35 percent of untreated offenders commit new crimes. After weekly cognitive-behavioral therapy over a series of months, the number drops to around 15 percent. Henger's own data reflects a similar conclusion: Only 2 percent of his clients have been reconvicted, though he believes a higher percentage may have reoffended without being caught. Of the 2 percent who were sent back to jail, the majority were convicted for "hands-off" crimes like exhibitionism.

An important part of relapse prevention involves interrupting the arousal patterns of sex offenders. In his meetings, Henger is relentless on the subject.

"A month ago you were still masturbating to little children; are you still?" he asks Steven, the offender who left pictures of himself at the bus stop. Steven says he's "had the urge," but he hasn't.

"You need to fantasize about adult women," suggests a long-term member of the group. "Are you able to masturbate to adult women?" Henger asks.

"I'm attracted to kids more than adults," Steven admits.

"This won't go away by magic," Henger says. "You need to be proactive. You can't wait."

"It's too late then," a few men voice in unison.

Steven explains that the fantasies he has with adults feature women rejecting him. "Do not masturbate to women who reject you," Henger commands. He compares inappropriate masturbating to "gas on a fire."

"For homework," he tells Steven, "think out a consensual adult fantasy you could ejaculate to and tell us." The men in the group offer advice, explaining that a fantasy has to be about an unattainable man or woman. "Like Sigourney Weaver," suggests Matt.

Sam, a man who molested all three of his daughters, has been a participant in the Saturday group for years. He has had a total of 11 years of therapy, in prison and on parole -- without a relapse. (Henger has worked with him since his 1995 release from prison.) This Saturday, he tells the group that on Monday, he visited his middle daughter with his ex-wife. It is the first time he's seen her -- at the daughter's request -- since he went to prison.

"My daughter hugged me," Sam says, in tears. While they talked, his ex-wife held his right hand and his daughter held his left. "Up to 17 years old, she just felt manipulated and controlled," says Sam. "I have a chance to give back what she missed."

His daughter said the worst times for her have been the holidays and not having a father when she got married. Sam says, "I learned through therapy where my feelings weren't." Adds Bert, "The old Sam wouldn't cry for anyone."

As the group gets ready to leave, Bert says, "The hardest thing is going home." The participants don't really have time to think during the sessions, says Henger. They begin to internalize new perceptions and ideas afterward.

Henger goes home with his own burdens. When he first started treating sex offenders, he would tell his wife stories. "It was new, and there was a voyeuristic quality to it," he says. Now, he talks to parole and probation agents about his job and never discusses it at home.

On holidays, when Henger's extended family gathers for dinner, his relatives hold a round table. Each family member takes a turn, fielding questions from the others about their lives since they last met. When it's Henger's turn, he says, no one ever asks him about his job.

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