MacKenzie Readings Chapter 8 Sex Offender Treatment Introduction sex offender classified into 2 categories 1 people who have committed forcible rape 2 people who have committed sexual assault statutory rape sodomoy incest offenses against chastity common decency and moral unwanted sexual contact and fondling sentence length hasn t changed over the past decade but the amount of time offenders spend in jail has increased they serve a larger percentage of their sentence Theoretical Perspectives Researchers and clinicians who study and treat sex offenders have two different philosophies about the assessment etiology and treatment of sex offenders 1 Believes that sex offenders with sexual disorders must be distinguished from other offenders who may be convicted of a sex offense but do not have a disorder 2 Believes that there are no fundamental differences within the sex offender population or between sex offenders and other types of offenders General treatment programs designed for other types of offenders may also be appropriate for sex offenders Sex Offenders with Sexual Disorders Offenders with sexual disorders are predisposed to misbehave sexually because there is something fundamentally different about their sexual makeup Believed that as people mature they discover the nature of their own sexual orientation and interests Differ in four ways 1 People differ in the behaviors they find sexually arousing 2 Type of partners they are attracted to 3 Strength of sexual drive 4 Attitudes about sexual behavior and whether sexual temptations should be resisted explains sexual disorders or paraphilias as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Believed that treatment is needed for sex offenders with these sexual disorders Begins with assessment of the offender to identify whether the behavior is the result of an abnormal sexual makeup Treatment offender programs offered within the CJ system or used to treat offenders do not always make the distinction between offenders convicted of sex crimes with and without a sexual disorder Etiology of Sexual Disorders We do not know what causes sexual disorders History of child abuse is associated with sexual disorders Similarities Between Sex Offenders and Others Offenders Andrew and Bonta 2003 Sex offenders have many of the same dynamic risk factors that nonsexual offenders have therefore treatment should focus on changing these factors Not only do sex offenders commit many nonsexual crimes but those factors found to predict nonsexual offending also predict sex offending Similar Association with other offenders future offending by nonsexual offenders can be successfully predicted as a function of their association with other antisocial individuals Treatment Approaches Psychotherapy Depends upon contemporary perspectives on the underlying causes of the behavior the training of treatment providers the available resources the voice of victim advocates and the climate within the correctional system Guiding principle is that sex offenders suffer from poor health and any program that improves mental health and well being should also help reduce future rates of sexual offending Psychodynamic theory assumes that people ordinarily develop conventional erotic attractions toward age appropriate partners of the opposite sex however unhealthy early life experiences may interfere with this normal process of maturation Chemical or Surgical Castration Hormonal and medical treatments reflect a biological perspective on the causes of sex offending Seeks to lower the physiological drive of offenders through hormone manipulation Theorized that lowering testosterone will reduce sexual offending Behavioral Treatment Based on the theories of behaviorism have been designed specifically for sex offenders Goal is the reduction of sex offending through the modification of inappropriate sexual preferences More concerned about changing the observed behaviors Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Concerned with teaching offenders the mental skills necessary for controlling their own behaviors Reflects the philosophy that sexual offending is a choice made by the offender over which he or she has cognitive control albeit limited and reflects a social learning or cognitive behavioral theory model Effectiveness of Sex Offender Treatment Little consistency in conclusions Studies were exclusively males Tables on page 150 154 Chapter 9 Juvenile Delinquents The Juvenile Justice System First juvenile court in the US was est over 100 years ago in Chicago Before this children were processed as adults at age seven 1970s changes happened and there was less support for rehabilitation Then many states passed punitive laws During the late 1980s and early 1990s there was some justification that juvenile crime was Juvenile Crime Statistics increasing Deterrence and Increased Control Programs Many of the programs offered to juvenile delinquents are similar to programs offered in the adult correctional system Scared Straight Program Began in the 1970s when a NJ state prison designed a program to scare at risk or delinquent children from a future life of crime Run by inmates serving life sentences Would describe life in adult prisons and included exaggerated stories of rape and murder Like in Orange is the New Black Interventions for Serious Juvenile Offenders Effective in reducing recidivism Noninstituional Programs effects of treatment were larger for more serious juveniles than for less serious offenders Institutional Programs Treatment was more effective when provided by mental health personnel Programs that had been in operation longer were monitored for quality control and were of longer duration were more effective than programs that were newer less monitored and shorter Therapeutic Wilderness and Challenge Program Reduced recidivism rates including antisocial and delinquent behavior of the participants Multisystemic Therapy Major goals of the Blueprint Initiative are 1 To identify effective research based programs 2 To assist jurisdictions to replicate these effective programs Demonstrated significant impacts on problem behavior violence aggression delinquency and or substance abuse using a strong research design Residential Programs Community Supervision Conclusion When compared to the control groups the juveniles in the programs studied had lower recidivism rates in six of the evaluations three of these studies found significant deterrences Insufficient evidence to