TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2014//
TI  - Psychological treatment of sexual offenders against children: a meta-analytic review of treatment outcome studies
JO  - Trauma, violence, and abuse
A1  - Grønnerød, Cato
A1  - Grønnerød, Jarna Soilevuo
A1  - Grøndahl, Pål
SP  - 280
EP  - 290
VL  - 16
IS  - 3
N2  - 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.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1524-8380
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1524838014526043
ID  - ref1
ER  -