 Even the majority of studies found that most adult sex offenders said they had "not" been sexually abused during childhood, but studies varied in terms of their estimates of the percentage of such offenders who had been abused, from 0 to 79 percent.More recent prospective longitudinal research—studying children with documented cases of sexual abuse over time to determine what percentage become adult offenders—has demonstrated that the cycle of violence theory is not an adequate explanation for why people molest children.Offenders may use cognitive distortions to facilitate their offenses, such as minimization of the abuse, victim blaming, and excuses.