Does Treatment for Sexual Offending Work?

We review and synthesize the literature on the effectiveness of offense-focused treatment for sexual offending. Specifically, we consider whether the extant literature suggests treatment is effective in reducing sexual reoffending and features of effective interventions. We also consider how the design of program evaluations may influence treatment outcomes.

Recent research suggests that offense-focused psychological treatment for sexual offending shows some level of effectiveness in reducing both sexual and general reoffending. Further, there appear to be key program, individual, and study design features associated with treatment effectiveness. Although recent findings paint an optimistic outlook for offense-focused psychological treatment for sexual offending, further high-quality differential studies are needed to fully understand the range of content, delivery, and individual factors associated with successful treatment outcomes so as to establish what works best for whom.