NCJ Number
189931
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 302-313
Date Published
June 2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study identified the factors that increased the likelihood that a sex offender would complete a particular correctional sex offender treatment program.
Abstract
Participants were 179 incarcerated adult male sex offenders who volunteered to participate in a sex offender treatment program. Prior to entering treatment, the participants were assessed. They then entered the education component of the program, which required the completion of a community college general human sexuality course and a sexuality and paraphilia class. After completion of the education component, the participants began the relapse prevention component of the treatment program, which involved weekly individual and group therapy sessions. Each member of the group developed a relapse prevention plan that required him to identify high-risk situations and develop coping strategies for these situations. The social skills training component of the program involved 8 hours of intensive training. Decreasing deviant arousal was the focus of the behavioral reconditioning component; it continued until the participant's deviant response decreased to less than 10 percent of full arousal, and appropriate response increased to more than 20 percent. The treatment program lasted approximately 18 months, when participants were administered a full battery of posttests identical to the pretreatment assessments. The two groups evaluated for the current study were treatment completers and noncompleters. By examining archival records, the following data were collected: scores on the Multiphasic Sex Inventory II, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Abel and Becker Adult Sexual Interest card Sort, and plethysmograph. Demographic information was obtained from presentence investigation reports. Results from a logistic regression indicated that more years of education, not having a history of sexual victimization, and lower levels of minimizing or excusing sexual crimes predicted treatment completion. These results suggested that it was possible to predict which incarcerated sex offenders were likely to complete a prison-based sex offender treatment program. 2 tables and 14 references