TY - JOUR PY - 2006// TI - The effectiveness of sexual offender treatment for juveniles as measured by recidivism: a meta-analysis JO - Sexual abuse: a journal of research and treatment A1 - Reitzel, Lorraine R. A1 - Carbonell, Joyce L. SP - 401 EP - 421 VL - 18 IS - 4 N2 - Published and unpublished data from nine studies on juvenile sexual offender treatment effectiveness were summarized by meta-analysis (N=2986, 2604 known male). Recidivism rates for sexual, non-sexual violent, non-sexual non-violent crimes, and unspecified non-sexual were as follows: 12.53%, 24.73%, 28.51%, and 20.40%, respectively, based on an average 59-month follow-up period. Four included studies contained a control group (n=2288) and five studies included a comparison treatment group (n=698). An average weighted effect size of 0.43 (CI=0.33-0.55) was obtained, indicating a statistically significant effect of treatment on sexual recidivism. However, individual study characteristics (e.g., handling of dropouts and non-equivalent follow-up periods between treatment groups) suggest that results should be interpreted with caution. A comparison of odds ratios by quality of study design indicated that higher quality designs yielded better effect sizes, though the difference between groups was not significant.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1079-0632 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11194-006-9031-2 ID - ref1 ER -