Treatment outcome with sex offenders

Abstract

Previous reviews have taken either a severe methodological stance and concluded that treatments have not been demonstrated to be effective with sex offenders, or they have ignored methodological considerations and expounded about the value, of particular treatment approaches. We have attempted to adopt a position somewhere between these, two and have concluded that some treatment programs have been effective with child molesters and exhibitionists but not, apparently, with rapists. In examining the value of the different approaches, we concluded that comprehensive cognitive/behavioral programs (at least for child molesters, incest offenders, and exhibitionists) are most likely to be effective, although there is a clear value for the adjunctive use of antiandrogens with those offenders who engage in excessively high rates of sexual activities.