Evaluating community-based treatment programmes for men who sexually abuse children

✍ Scribed by Jayne M. Allam; Kevin D. Browne

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 256 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199801/02)7:1<13::aid-car370>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

The currently dominant multi-factorial explanations of sex oending have been re¯ected in the widespread adoption of cognitive-behavioural groupwork methods where treatment foci are those attitudes, beliefs, cognitions and behaviours believed to contribute towards the maintenance of sexually abusive practices. Community-based programmes have mushroomed during this decade, with 97% of regional probation services now having provision for sex oender treatment. However, these relatively recent and dramatic developments of practice have to a large extent occurred outside of a framework of rigorous planning and evaluation. This article begins by outlining a rationale for both the treatment of sex oenders and evaluating programmes. This is followed by a framework for evaluation within which treatment providers can consider the issues involved (including the methodological diculties) in setting up research designed to evaluate treatment eectiveness. It is suggested that, while small-scale (in-house) research may tell us something about the success or otherwise of individual programmes, it is the larger-scale projects carried out by independent researchers that will inform us as to the impact of cognitive-behavioural group work on recidivism and oence-related psychological variables. Such research has the potential to assist policy-makers and to aid managers and practitioners in the development of eective treatment programmes. *