Is treatment worth it? Jury’s still out

Does sex offender treatment really work?

It’s a difficult question to answer.

Roxanne Lieb, director of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy, is currently analyzing this question for the state Legislature. She expects a new report to be released in the fall.

One way researchers measure effectiveness is to look at recidivism – the rate at which sex offenders are convicted of new crimes after their release.

Recidivism rates for sex offenders are low in general. According to a July 2004 report, the public policy institute found that sex offenders are less likely to be convicted of a new crime within two years of being released than thieves or murderers. Their total reoffense rate for all crime categories stood at 9 percent, compared with 24 percent for those convicted of assault, 34 percent of those convicted of robbery and 19 percent of those convicted of murder.

Only 2 percent of the sex offenders were convicted of another sex crime within two years.

These highly private crimes often go unreported, however. National Crime Victim Surveys conducted in 1994, 1995 and 1998 indicate that only 32 percent of sexual assaults against those age 12 and older are reported to law enforcement, according to the Center for Sex Offender Management, a project of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Research appears to show promising results for sex offenders who are found to be amenable to treatment by the court and receive a special treatment option where they stay in the community. A 1994 study from the public policy institute showed that within a seven-year period, 11 percent of those treated under this program were convicted for another sex crime. Of those eligible for the program who did not receive treatment, 14 percent reoffended, and of those not eligible for the program, 34 percent reoffended.

Washington’s Twin Rivers Sex Offender Treatment Program in Monroe has two components. It treats prisoners during the last two years of their sentence and continues treatment once they’ve been released. Between 1988 and 2000 there were 871 prisoners who completed treatment and were released. Only 6 percent had returned to a state prison for a new sexual or violent offense by February 2002, according to the Washington State Department of Corrections.

A 2002 meta-analysis looked at data from 43 studies and concluded that sexual assault recidivism was lower for offenders who received treatment (12.3 percent) than it was for comparison groups (16.8 percent.)

Yet a recent California study reported no difference in recidivism rates among sex offenders treated in a hospital relapse prevention program, a prison control group who volunteered for treatment but didn’t receive it and another prison control group who did not want treatment. This randomized clinical study compared three groups of offenders over an eight-year period. Results were released in January.

“It was a cream of the crop study, and it showed treatment didn’t make much of a difference,” Lieb says.

She says the institute’s next report should offer more answers. Until then, she says, “The jury is still out.”