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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Sapp and Vaughn was to evaluate 30 juvenile sex offender treatment programs at state-operated correctional institutions, in addition to investigating several rehabilitation approaches.
METHODOLOGY:
This study was quasi-experimental in design. Past research has shown that adult sex offenders initiated their offense patterns early in life. Accordingly, the authors wished to detail existing treatment modalities offered to juvenile sex offenders. They also explored what rehabilitative strategies institution administrators would implement if they were not obligated by financial and political conditions. Survey research was used to collect primary data from participating state prison officials. Thirty-nine questionnaires were mailed out to directors of juvenile sex offender treatment programs in 17 different states. A total of thirty questionnaires were utilized for the study.
This study's population was based on a 1988 quasi-experimental study of sex offender treatment programs throughout the country. The study encompassed a variety of both juvenile and adult offender treatment programs. However the present study was based solely on treatment programs occurring within those 17 state correctional institutions or prisons which had juvenile sex offender treatment programs. Although the research was comprehensive in scope, data was limited to a descriptive analysis of the total 30 programs reported. The study focused on description and identification of three therapeutic modalities. Those were psychological therapy, behavior modification, and biological treatment.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Analyses of the juvenile sex offender treatment modalities reflected that psychological therapy was the treatment modality most frequently used in adolescent sex offender rehabilitative programs. Within this modality, 182 different therapies/techniques were used in the total 30 responding programs. Most of the programs used individual and group counseling, victim empathy, sex education, or accountability training. If there were no program constraints, respondents reported they would expand their therapies to include family therapy, milieu therapy, female identification, and cognitive therapy to their programs. Although biological treatment was only used in a single program, 14 biological therapies were seen as desirable by the responding program directors. Indicated by 11 respondents was a preference in using Depo-Provera (MPA) to modify the offender's biological state. Behavior modification therapies were used in all 30 reporting treatment programs a total of 155 times for an average of slightly more than five per program. Programs most reported were social skills acquisition, modeling-role playing, assertiveness training, and individual behavior modification therapy. Given resources and authorization, the program directors would nearly double the behavior modification modalities used by their institutions.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that further research was needed to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of the treatment programs and the various therapies employed in those programs. Also, outcome and process evaluation research was needed to provide empirical assessments of programs designed to treat juvenile sex offenders in state institutions. Finally, research was necessary in order to evaluate the comparative effects of voluntary and mandatory participation in such programs.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Program Evaluation
Violence Treatment
Rehabilitate
Behavior Modification
Treatment Techniques
Cognitive Behavioral
Biological Factors
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Inmate
Sexual Assault Offender
Incarcerated
Correctional Institution Program
Treatment Program
Juvenile Violence
Sexual Assault Treatment
Offender Treatment
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