Effectiveness of a Sex Offender Treatment Programme: A Risk Band Analysis

This article reports an evaluation of a New South Wales Department of Corrective Services custody-based treatment programme for adult male sexual offenders. A risk band analysis was used to compare observed and predicted sexual and violent recidivism rates in a sample of 117 treated and released offenders. Risk bands and predicted recidivism were determined using the Static-99 risk assessment measure. Results demonstrated that during an average follow-up period of 3.75 years, observed sexual recidivism rates were lower than Static-99 predictions for the overall sample (8.5% vs. 26%). The same pattern was observed for violent recidivism (12.8% vs. 36%). At each Static-99 level of risk (low, low-moderate, moderate-high, and high), observed sexual and violent recidivism rates were lower than predicted rates. These findings were consistent with the general consensus that well-implemented cognitive-behavioural treatment can have a positive effect on offending behaviour.