title: Psychological Treatment of Sexual Offenders Against Children: A Meta-Analytic Review of Treatment Outcome Studies.
abstract: Numerous meta-analyses and reviews have been conducted on the effectiveness of psychological treatment of sexual offenders in reducing recidivism, but no meta-analysis has been done on sexual offenders against children (SOAC) specifically. A moderate treatment effect has been shown in several evaluations of general sexual offenders, while many scholars maintain that the question remains unanswered until an adequate number of effectiveness studies with a strong research design have been carried out. In this meta-analysis, we evaluated 14 studies selected and coded according to Collaborative Outcome Data Committee (CODC) criteria. They included 1,421 adult offenders in psychotherapy and 1,509 nontreated controls, with a minimum average follow-up period of 3 years, published in peer-reviewed journals in 1980 or later. Recidivism was defined as rearrest or reconviction. Study quality was classified into strong, good, weak or rejected. The analysis revealed a treatment effect size of r = .03 for nine studies evaluated as Good or Weak, while all studies yielded an effect size of r = .08, including five studies classified as Rejected. The results show that the available research cannot establish any effect of treatment on SOAC. Despite a large amount of research, only a tiny fraction of studies meet a minimum of scientific standards, and even fewer provide sensible and useful data from which it is possible to draw conclusions.
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Oslo, Norway cato.gronnerod@psykomatikk.no.
authors.forename: Cato
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Grønnerød
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Jarna Soilevuo
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Grønnerød
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Education in Forensic Psychiatry, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Pål
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grøndahl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D010378:Pedophilia / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: meta-analysis; paedophilia; pedophilia; psychotherapy; recidivism; sexual offenders against children; treatment effectiveness