Abstract
Summative research regarding the effectiveness of juvenile sexual offender treatment and recidivism rates in a juvenile sexual offender population is comparatively less well established than similar research with an adult population. The purpose of this study was to help redress this gap in the literature with a research synthesis on the effectiveness of juvenile sex offender treatment using the statistical technique of meta-analysis. Published and unpublished data from 33 studies on juvenile sexual offender recidivism were summarized. Overall, the total recidivism rates for sexual, non-sexual violent, non-sexual non-violent crimes, and unspecified non-sexual were as follows: 11.87%, 22.59%, 28.99%, and 22.30%, respectively (N = 5335, 4805 male), based on an average 56-month follow-up period. The difference in sexual recidivism rates for treated (8.60% sexual recidivism, n = 3730, 29 studies) versus untreated (i.e., in no treatment control groups or in recidivism only studies, 19.44% sexual recidivism, n = 1605, 8 studies) offenders was statistically significant. Of the 33 studies included in the recidivism calculation, 9 studies contained a no treatment control group (n = 4 studies) or a comparison treatment group (n = 5 studies) and could be included in the meta-analysis. Results of the meta-analysis on the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment yielded an average weighted effect size of 0.43 (N = 2986, 9 studies, CI = 0.33-0.55), indicating a statistically significant effect of treatment on sexual recidivism.
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