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      “They Treat Us Like Human Beings”—Experiencing a Therapeutic Sex Offenders Prison : Impact on Prisoners and Staff and Implications for Treatment

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      International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
      SAGE Publications

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          Abstract

          Research evidence demonstrates that sex offender treatment programmes (SOTPs) can reduce the number of sex offenders who are reconvicted. However, there has been much less empirical research exploring the experiences and perspectives of the prison environment within which treatment takes place. This is important, particularly for sexual offenders, as they often face multiple stigmas in prison. This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the experiences of prisoners and staff at a therapeutically orientated sexual offenders' prison to understand whether the prison environment was conducive to rehabilitation. The quantitative strand of the research sampled prisoners (n = 112) and staff (n = 48) from a therapeutically orientated sex offenders prison. This strand highlighted that both prisoners and staff had positive attitudes toward offenders and high beliefs that offenders could change. Importantly, the climate was rated positively and, in particular, participants had very high ratings of "experienced safety." The qualitative strand of the research consisted of semistructured interviews with prisoners (n = 15) and a range of prison staff (n = 16). The qualitative analysis revealed positive prisoner views toward staff relationships, with most participants articulating that the prison and its staff had contributed to positive change in prisoners. Crucially, the environment was perceived as safe and allowed prisoners "headspace" to work through problems and contemplate change. This research offers some support to the notion that context is important for sex offender rehabilitation.

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          Most cited references45

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          Approaches to Qualitative-Quantitative Methodological Triangulation

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            Doing Mixed Methods Research Pragmatically: Implications for the Rediscovery of Pragmatism as a Research Paradigm

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              First report of the collaborative outcome data project on the effectiveness of psychological treatment for sex offenders.

              This meta-analytic review examined the effectiveness of psychological treatment for sex offenders by summarizing data from 43 studies (combined n = 9,454). Averaged across all studies, the sexual offence recidivism rate was lower for the treatment groups (12.3%) than the comparison groups (16.8%, 38 studies, unweighted average). A similar pattern was found for general recidivism, although the overall rates were predictably higher (treatment 27.9%, comparison 39.2%, 30 studies). Current treatments (cognitive-behavioral, k = 13; systemic, k = 2) were associated with reductions in both sexual recidivism (from 17.4 to 9.9%) and general recidivism (from 51 to 32%). Older forms of treatment (operating prior to 1980) appeared to have little effect. Future directions for improving the quality of sex offender treatment outcome evaluations are discussed.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
                Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol
                SAGE Publications
                0306-624X
                1552-6933
                October 09 2014
                October 09 2014
                : 60
                : 4
                : 371-396
                Article
                10.1177/0306624X14553227
                25305193
                d62c2b13-91e1-4bcf-916a-f71975dbcf10
                © 2014

                http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license

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