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publication of the Justice Center |
Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center |
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The Alaska Department of Corrections
and the Statistical Analysis Unit in the Justice Center recently
completed a beginning study of sex offenders in the treatment
program at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center during the period
of January 1987 to August 1995. Rose Munafo of the Department
of Corrections and Dr. Allan Barnes of the Justice Center headed
the project. The study included analysis of descriptive characteristics
of the participants; treatment variables such as length of time
in program, reason for discharge and treatment stage at discharge;
and reoffense data. The analysis led to the following observations:
• Treated sex offenders lasted
longer in the community before they were rearrested than offenders
in any of the comparison groups. Regardless of the definition
of reoffense applied, the treatment group lasted longer without
rearrest.
• Those who were in treatment
longer tended to live longer in the community without a rearrest.
Those who completed all stages of treatment had a zero rearrest
rate for sexual reoffenses. This observation also seems to be
true of sexual assault offenders (rapists), who generally reoffend
more quickly and at a higher frequency.
• Sexual assault offenders
(rapists) seem to do as well as sexual abuse of a minor offenders,
both in terms of how long they stay in treatment and how far
they advance through the program. This is a positive outcome
that has not usually been reported by other programs.
• Alaska Native offenders
do not progress as well in the program as non-Native offenders.
This is the first study which has addressed the demographic characteristics
of Alaska Native sex offenders. The findings were somewhat different
from what had been expected. It was anticipated that Alaska Natives
who left the program early would be young, less educated and
have a history of both alcohol and drug abuse. In fact, the study
demonstrated that older, more educated Alaska Natives left the
program earlier.
Two-thirds of all offenders in
the treatment group had a history of substance abuse, with an
even higher incidence among Alaska Native offenders. Those who
had no history of substance abuse tended to advance further in
the program; those with a history of both alcohol and drug abuse
tended to leave in the earlier phases of the program.
The study was limited in scope:
only sex offenders in the Hiland Mountain program were included.
It did not address sex offenders who received treatment for other
presenting problems, such as alcoholism or mental illness, exclusive
of sex offender treatment. The Hiland Mountain program is currently
the only multi-phase institutional treatment program for sex
offenders in Alaska.
The program includes four stages:
1. Pretreatment: The purpose
of this stage is to provide assessment, orientation, education,
challenge of offense denial, and clinical management.
2. Beginning Treatment:
This stage prepares offenders to give and receive feedback, to
use self-regulation and social skills, and to assume responsibility
for the current offense and its impact upon victims. It focuses
on the most immediate precursors to the sexual offense, with
the creation of external management strategies.
3. Intermediate Treatment:
This stage addresses the earliest precursors to the offense and
develops the skills for more self-management of all risk factors.
The focus is on the internalization of skills learned in the
preceding phase.
4. Advanced Treatment: This
stage emphasizes the application and generalization of skills
to new situations.
With the exclusion of pretreatment,
each stage requires a minimum of six months and may take 12 months
or more. Duration in treatment depends upon the offender's individual
resources, problem areas, skills, motivation and length of sentence.
The program is not designed with the expectation that every sex
offender will complete all stages of treatment. Some offenders
may leave the program without completing all stages. These offenders
may lack the ability or the sentence length to go further in
the program, but will have still gained some benefit from treatment
when they leave the program.
The data from treated offenders
in the present study were compared with data from sex offenders
and non-sex offenders in several comparison groups. This allowed
some conclusions to be drawn regarding whether the results are
likely to be due to treatment efforts or to random and unknown
factors.
Several measures of recidivism
were used in the study, including:
• First Arrest -- Any Offense:
This variable is a measure of both sexual and non-sexual reoffenses.
The time it took for an offender to be arrested for any offense
is reflected in this figure.
• Most Serious Offense
-- Any Offense: This variable is also a measure of both sexual
and non-sexual reoffenses but specifically determines the most
serious of all reoffenses committed by an offender. This was
determined by looking at NCIC offense codes and applying an algorithm
to identify seriousness. The algorithm used was developed by
the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in the mid-1970s in
an attempt to arrange the NCIC codes according to level of seriousness.
• First Arrest -- Non-Sexual
Offenses: This variable is a measure of reoffense for any
non-sexual crime.
• Most Serious -- Non-Sexual
Offenses: This variable is a measure of the most serious
of the non-sexual reoffenses, which is assessed using the algorithm
described above.
• First Arrest -- Sexual
Offenses: This variable separates sexual offenses from other
offenses so that we can study the effects of treatment on sexual
reoffending specifically.
• Most Serious Sexual Offense:
This variable examines the most serious of the sexual reoffenses
using the same algorithm as described above.
These definitions reflect a range
of criminal behavior. Measures which reflect criminal behavior
of any type tend to be the most sensitive since they pick up
criminal thinking of any kind. Sexual reoffenses are the least
sensitive measure since they are typically under-reported. Non-sexual
offenses, however, are related to sexual offenses because sexual
offenses are often at the end of a chain of events which includes
non-sexual precursors. It is this chain of events which the relapse
prevention plan addresses.
The research demonstrates that
treatment works by reducing the incidence of sexual reoffense
or by prolonging the time until reoffense. Either of these results
reduces the number of victims in the community.
Offenders who are amenable to treatment
learn to recognize precursors to relapsing and to self-manage
their high risk behavior. Those who are not amenable or not willing
to participate in treatment must be controlled by external measures.
It is important to recognize that offenders differ along a continuum
of risk. Identifying the extent of the risk and the conditions
under which an offender is likely to relapse allows the offender
and others to manage the risk more effectively.
The study was funded by the Department
of Corrections. In addition to Rose Munafo and Allan Barnes,
the project team included Dr. Anthony Mander and Dr. Martin Atrops
of the Department of Corrections; Tracie Howard, a student in
the Justice Center academic program; and other Justice Center
students.
Copies of the complete report Sex Offender Treatment Program: Initial Recidivism Study are available from the Alaska Department of Corrections, Offender Programs.