Pretreatment self-esteem and posttreatment sexual recidivism

The relationship between self-esteem assessed prior to treatment using the Self-Esteem Scale and sexual recidivism was explored in two samples of adult male sex offenders, 53 of whom were beginning treatment in the community and 172 of whom were beginning treatment in prison. Sexual reconviction rates were obtained for both samples using a 6-year followup for the community sample and an average follow-up of just less than 4 years for the prison sample. Lower levels of self-esteem were associated with higher sexual recidivism rates with similar trends being apparent in both samples. The linear main effect of self-esteem was significant at beyond the .01 level in a logistic regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was used to assess the strength of this association and an area-under-the-curve coefficient of .69 was obtained. Results are discussed in terms of their meaning for the relevance of self-esteem as a predictor of recidivism and as a target for treatment.