title: The impact of prison-based treatment on sex offender recidivism: evidence from Minnesota.
abstract: Using a retrospective quasi-experimental design, this study evaluates the effectiveness of prison-based treatment by examining recidivism outcomes among 2,040 sex offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 1990 and 2003 (average follow-up period of 9.3 years). To reduce observed selection bias, the authors used propensity score matching to create a comparison group of 1,020 untreated sex offenders who were not significantly different from the 1,020 treated offenders. In addition, intent-to-treat analyses and the Rosenbaum bounds method were used to test the sensitivity of the findings to treatment refuser and unobserved selection bias. Results from the Cox regression analyses revealed that participating in treatment significantly reduced the hazard ratio for rearrest by 27% for sexual recidivism, 18% for violent recidivism, and 12% for general recidivism. These findings are consistent with the growing body of research supporting the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment for sex offenders.
authors.affiliation: Minnesota Department of Corrections, St. Paul, MN 55108-5219, USA. GDuwe@co.doc.state.mn.us
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duwe
authors.forename: Robin A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Goldman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011329:Prisoners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012114:Residential Treatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055502:Secondary Prevention