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Effective Sex Offender Treatment: The Warkworth Sexual Behaviour Clinic

NCJ Number
165053
Journal
Focus on Corrections Research Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1996) Pages: 13-15
Author(s)
H E Barbaree; M T Seto; A Maric
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Opened in 1989, Canada's Warkworth Sexual Behaviour Clinic has provided treatment to about 75 offenders per year to reduce the likelihood of offender recidivism, especially violent or sexual recidivism.
Abstract
The program uses a group therapy format and is designed to fit into institutional work and job site organization. A relatively novel process is employed to assess offender recidivism risk. The pretreatment assessment looks for a history of sexual offending, signs of deviant sexual arousal, history of antisocial behavior, and other indicators of antisocial personality and social competence problems. The assessment then considers offender motivation for treatment and degree of offender behavior change during treatment. The risk assessment process establishes treatment targets relevant to the offender's recidivism risk and indicates how long the course of treatment should be. Treatment groups meet for about 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, over a 5-month period and group therapy is supervised by a senior therapist. After treatment is completed, a report is prepared that details the offender's risk assessment, progress during treatment, offense cycle, and relapse prevention plan. The risk assessment process was evaluated based on a sample of 123 rapists, 56 incest offenders, 56 extrafamilial child molesters, and 15 offenders convicted of a sex-related homicide. Of the original 250 offenders, 193 completed treatment. About two-thirds of the offenders received some form of conditional release, while the rest were detained in custody on their statutory release date. The average time at risk in the community before conditional release failure was approximately 43 months, with a range of 1 week to 5.2 years. In general, highly antisocial offenders who behaved poorly in group treatment were more likely to fail on conditional release. The analysis of recidivism showed that 36 offenders committed a new offense after release. About 18.5 percent of 65 treatment refusers who were released committed a new offense after release. Study data indicate that the risk assessment process completed at the Warkworth Sexual Behaviour Clinic predicts National Parole Board decisions and offender failure on conditional release. 1 note and 1 table