NCJ Number
222216
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2008 Pages: 234-245
Date Published
April 2008
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined empirical findings concerning the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment (SOT) for psychopathic sexual offenders.
Abstract
The most obvious conclusion is that there are few databases available from which any conclusion can be drawn about the effectiveness of treatment on psychopathic sex offenders. However, findings suggest that sex offender treatment does not appear effective in lowering serious recidivism for psychopaths to levels exhibited by non-psychopaths. Although treated psychopaths’ sexual recidivism rates relative to non-psychopaths’ rates were variable, there were repeated indications that some psychopaths could show the same sexual recidivism rates as non-psychopaths posttreatment, whereas other psychopaths did not. The paucity of properly designed studies allows for the alternative explanation of less recidivism among treated samples as reflecting that lower risk offenders disproportionately self-select into treatment. Analysis found a consistent absence of untreated comparison groups in all studies. No conclusion could be drawn from existing research about the degree to which psychopathic offenders benefit from sex offender treatment. Whether psychopaths benefit from treatment cannot be conclusively stated based on research to date. Likewise, the recurrent issue of small numbers of participants precludes clear conclusions across most of the studies. Data were collected from 10 studies found to meet the minimal quality standards. These 10 cases came from only 4 data sources. References