A psychometric examination of treatment change in a multisite sample of treated Canadian federal sexual offenders.

Abstract

In the present study, we examined the degree of change and predictive accuracy of a number of well-known psychological self-report measures intended to identify treatment targets for sexual offenders. Participants included 392 federally incarcerated sexual offenders who participated in low, moderate, or high intensity sexual offender programs offered within penitentiaries under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada. These men were followed in the community for an average of 5.42 years postrelease. Very small to moderate pretreatment and posttreatment changes were found on measures of cognitive distortions, aggression/hostility, empathy, loneliness, social intimacy, and sex offender acceptance of responsibility. However, pretreatment and posttreatment scores on these measures frequently demonstrated weak and inconsistent relationships to sexual, violent, and general recidivism. In addition, within-treatment change on these measures bore little relationship to outcome. However, when statistically corrected for pretreatment score the relationship of treatment change to outcome frequently improved, particularly on measures of physical aggression and anger, even after controlling for Static-99R score. Clinical and research implications are discussed regarding the assessment and evaluation of change on psychological risk factors in treated sexual offenders.

Aggression and Social Anxiety Are Associated with Sexual Offending Against Children

“…There are also some clear indications that the lack of clinical elevation in the self-report measures could be attributed to contextual differences (also see Olver, Kingston, Nicholaichuk, & Wong, 2014). Research by Hornsveld, Kraaimaat, Bouwmeester, Polak, and Zwets (2014) demonstrated, within a similar inpatient sample, that these inpatients barely show any aggressive behavior after admission and that this effect remained stable over a follow-up period of 3 years.…”

Can a Dynamic Risk Instrument Make Short-Term Predictions in "Real Time"? Developing a Framework for Testing Proximal Assessment of Offender Recidivism Risk During Re-entry

“…For example, among studies examining change in sex offenders attending rehabilitation, one study reported that change scores predicted recidivism beyond static risk scores (Beggs & Grace, 2011), but this finding is balanced by non-significant results in both large sample (Barnett, Wakeling, Mandeville--Norden, & Rakestrow, 2013;Wakeling, Beech, & Freemantle, 2013) and small sample programs (Nunes, Pettersen, Hermann, Looman, & Spape, 2014;Pettersen et al, 2015;Woessner & Schwedler, 2014). Similarly, Olver, Kingston, Nicholaichuk, and Wong (2014) found only a few subscales predicted recidivism in their sample of sex offenders, while most pre--post measures did not; however, change in sexual deviance was a consistent predictor across two samples (Olver, Beggs Christofferson, et al, 2014). Also, one study with violent offenders found changes in attitudes and anger did not predict post--program recidivism (Klepfisz, O'Brien, & Daffern, 2014), whereas change scores in other programs predicted violent recidivism (De Vries Robbé, de Vogel, Douglas, & Nijman, 2015;Lewis, Olver, & Wong, 2012;Novaco & Taylor, 2015).…”

Personnalité et distorsions cognitives des agresseurs sexuels

“…Blumenthal et al (1999) ont observé que les agresseurs sexuels d'enfants et les agresseurs sexuels d'adultes sont similaires sur le plan des distorsions à l'égard du viol. D'autres auteurs (Arkowitz et Vess, 2003 ;Olver, Kingston, Nicholaichuk et Wong, 2014) ont même observé davantage de distorsions à l'égard du viol chez les agresseurs sexuels d'enfants comparativement aux agresseurs d'adultes. La notion du droit à la sexualité réfère à la croyance que l'individu a « tous les droits » à propos de la sexualité et qu'il est justifié de combler ses besoins sexuels (Hanson, Gizzarelli et Scott, 1994).…”