Effective treatment for adolescent sex offenders

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Last week I wrote about clinician prejudice toward sexual offenders. As part of that writing I introduced the four main categories of sexual offenders: Violent offenders Regressed child offenders Sexually addicted offenders I also mentioned the some of the most damaging misconceptions that most people, including many psychotherapy professionals, have about sex offenders.

All sex offenders are treatable.

• New therapy proves effective for juvenile sex offenders | Center for Public Integrity
• Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior: Effective Policies and Practices | ATSA

No sex offenders are treatable. All sex offenders are sociopaths None of these beliefs is correct. The reality is that most but not all sex offenders can benefit from proper treatment.

Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior: Effective Policies and Practices | ATSA

In fact, the recidivism rate is actually quite low, provided the offender is paired with the most effective form of treatment. These individuals do not engage in their offending behaviors because of some childhood trauma, attachment deficit disorder, or similar issue.

In most cases they are either inherently sociopathic or hardwired in their sexual attraction to children. Only the most motivated—those with the least psychopathy who are also willing to also take hormonal anti-androgen drugs which drastically reduce their sex drive —have much chance of success.

Dedicated hebephiles are more likely than dedicated pedophiles or violent offenders to respond in positive ways to treatment, but even they are not great candidates. Generally speaking, contraindications to sex offender treatment are: This is especially true if the underlying causes of their problematic behaviors are similar to the presenting issues of alcoholics and addicts—depression, severe anxiety, low self-esteem, attachment deficit disorders, unresolved childhood or severe adult emotional trauma, etc.

The vast majority of these methodologies have proven to be either ineffective or only partially effective. Chemotherapy Various anti-androgenic hormones, most notably Depo-Provera, have a moderating effect on sexual aggressiveness. These hormones have been used as a way to enhance self-regulation of sexual behavior.

Depo-Provera shows promise in the treatment of sexual offenders as a chemical control of antisocial sexual acting out.

However, the method is only partially effective, as human sex-drive lives primarily in the mind, not the body. Thus, offenders often still want to engage in their antisocial behavior, even if they are unable to become physically aroused and carry it out. This methodology has proven to be only minimally effective, and the efficacy diminishes over time.

In other words, the further away the offender is from the aversive experience, the less effect the treatment will have.Funding be available to support continued research on the etiology, assessment, prevention, effective interventions of adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behavior.

Risk, need and responsivity principles are adhered to when working with adolescent who have engaged in sexually abusive behavior. The good news is violent sex offenders, fixated child offenders, and others for whom treatment is contraindicated are a minority of the overall sex offender population. Who We Can Help (If.

Multisystemic Therapy proves effective for juvenile sex Search the Center. Search. Juvenile Justice. New therapy proves effective for juvenile sex offenders.

By Sarah Boslaugh Juvenile Justice juvenile sex offender unit and required to take part in weekly sex offender treatment groups. The offenders’ mean age was years (range The Effectiveness of Treatment for Adult Sexual Offenders; One of the few studies to use a randomized controlled trial design to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment for adult sex offenders was conducted by Marques and colleagues ().

The study is frequently cited as evidence that treatment for sex offenders is not effective, yet. See NIC's Sex Offenders page for a compilation of resources capturing current research and trends in the management and treatment of sex offenders.

Links from the NCJRS website to non-federal sites do not constitute an endorsement by NCJRS or its sponsors. Does treatment keep sexual offenders from reoffending?

The treatments that appeared effective were cognitive-behavioural treatments for adult sexual offenders, and systemic treatments for adolescent sexual offenders. Cognitive-behavioural treatments identify the habits, values and social influences that contribute to offending and teach.