Treatment and Therapeutic Change of Individuals Imprisoned for Child Abuse in the Barcelona Study on Sex Offenders

The sexual abuse of children is a serious social problem that must be prevented through distinct measures. Among them is the application of treatments to those who have already committed sex crimes in order to prevent them from committing a new one. To assess the efficacy of sexual offense treatment...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of interpersonal violence 2022-10, Vol.37 (19-20), p.NP17709-NP17737
Main Authors: Martínez-Catena, Ana, Redondo, Santiago
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abused children
Child Abuse
Child abuse & neglect
Child sexual abuse
Correctional system
Imprisonment
Meta Analysis
Psychological Evaluation
Recidivism
Rehabilitation of criminals
Self esteem
Sex crimes
Sex offenders
Sexual abuse
Social Problems
Treatment methods
Treatment programs
Variables
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Summary:The sexual abuse of children is a serious social problem that must be prevented through distinct measures. Among them is the application of treatments to those who have already committed sex crimes in order to prevent them from committing a new one. To assess the efficacy of sexual offense treatment, the most common method has been to compare the recidivism rates of treated and untreated groups. Several meta-analyses in this regard—as well as some specific studies in Spain—have shown that the application of treatment is associated with lower recidivism rates. However, the analysis of the subjects’ recidivism alone does not reveal the therapeutic changes that the treatment may elicit in them. Some international studies have evaluated the therapeutic improvements resulting from the application of treatments to men who had sexually abused children. In this context, this study explores the therapeutic changes experienced by a sample of subjects imprisoned for child abuse (N = 145), after participating in the treatment program applied in the Spanish prison system. Nine therapeutic variables were assessed (such as anxiety, cognitive distortions, impulsivity, and social self-esteem), before and after treatment, using an instrument named the Psychological Assessment Scale for Sex Offenders (PASSO). The obtained results show that most of the assessed therapeutic variables improved after treatment, with strong correlations between them. The implications of the results for treatment practice are discussed, as well as the main methodological limitations of this research.
ISSN:0886-2605
1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/08862605211028310