Predicting treatment drop-out in sex offenders

✍ Scribed by Kevin D. Browne; Lucy Foreman; David Middleton

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 217 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-9136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0852(199811/12)7:6<402::aid-car530>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

Predicting Treatment Drop-Out in Sex Oenders

This study identi®es risk factors associated with recidivism for sexual oences against children to determine the ecacy in using such variables in analysing drop-out in a sample of 96 sex oenders who had attended a community treatment programme in the West Midlands area. The study considered 30 risk factors; 12 concerned with current oences and criminal history, 9 looking at the current situation and background history and 9 addressing current psychological problems and the treatment process. The study found that 60 oenders were observed to stay in treatment and thirty six oenders dropped out. Overall, nine risk factors were found to have a positive association with treatment drop-out. The nine signi®cant risk factors, when considered together, were shown to distinguish those oenders who stayed in treatment from those who dropped out with a 78% accuracy. These ®ndings were used to develop a weighted risk factor checklist. It was observed that those oenders who dropped out of treatment scored signi®cantly higher on this `resistance to treatment' scale. The implications for practice work with sex oenders are discussed.