Sex Offender Treatment: Helpful or Placebo?
In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person convicted of a sex crime is mandated to sex offender treatment.
This treatment tends to be group therapy primarily being Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT.
As the leader of a community of treatment providers, I am always striving to improve my practices. Therefore, I use evidenced based treatment modalities and the interventions best suited to our clients to decrease risks of recidivism.
So, when the question of whether or not what we are doing is helpful or harmful comes up, I pay attention.
Meta-Analysis of Sex Offender Treatment Outcomes
The keynote address Thursday morning at this year’s ATSA conference was by Dr. Teresa Gannon.
She presented her recently published meta-analysis of the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment. It was recently published in Clinical Psychology Review and is open access.
She looked at all types of violent offending but spoke this morning, specifically, about treatment for sexual offending.
There have been some studies that have been published that have provided a grim picture of treatment. Most specifically, Dr. Gannon points to a 2017 report from the UK Ministry of Justice that stated that people who had committed sexual crimes and had treatment had a 25% increase in their rates of recidivism.
To those of us who do this work, that’s a shocking number. No treatment provider wants to do more harm than good. Furthermore, none of us would ever knowingly do anything that would increase the risk of harm to anyone.
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Details of the Meta-analysis
Enter Dr. Gannon and her colleagues. They embarked on a meta-analysis of 70 studies on offending behavior. Furthermore, they analyzed variables that could influence treatment outcomes.
Their work asked three specific questions:
- Does offense specific treatment influence recidivism risk?
- Is a trained psychology professional needed?
- What program variables are important for success?
Results of the Study on Sex Offender Treatment
The results of the meta-analysis were both encouraging and enlightening.
Over a 6 year follow up period, individuals who engaged in sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 9.5%.
Those who did not attend sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 14.1%.
Sex offenders who attended treatment were 32.6% less likely to reoffend than those who did not attend. This result is the encouraging part.
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What has the Greatest Impact on Sex Offender Treatment?
The first important question involved the presence of a licensed psychology professional. Was there a licensed professional involved in provision of treatment?
This was broken down into unclear/none meaning that a psychology professional was not directly involved with providing treatment or it was unclear. The other categories were inconsistent and consistent.
The results indicated that treatment is more effective when a psychology professional is consistently hands on in the treatment process.
What Other Factors Impact Recidivism?
The last set of factors investigated involved actual variables in the treatment program.
It was found that offenders who attended group only had better outcomes than those who attended group and individual therapy.
Those programs where a licensed psychology professional provided supervision had better outcomes.
Programs that used arousal conditioning had lower recidivism rates.
Programs that didn’t use polygraph testing had better outcomes than those that did use it.
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Takeaways for the Sex Offender Treatment Study
The meta-analysis posits that, we need to think about several key elements.
The most effective treatment programs had the following characteristics:
- A licensed psychology professional with expertise in treating sexual offenders, who is hands on and consistent in the treatment.
- Inappropriate sexual interest is addressed.
- It is group based and supervision by a psychology professional is provided.
- The polygraph is not used in treatment.
On a side note, the study indicated that the countries with the best outcomes for treated offenders were Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
This is the most up to date meta-analysis of sexual offender treatment efficacy published. It is the first to provide some evidence for the efficacy of arousal conditioning. It also indicates that it is not just treatment that is effective but treatment provided by individuals with expertise in the field and offer supervision to treatment providers.
Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
