Sex Offenders: A Literature Review

Method: This article is classified as a theoretical article. The study used a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT is known as the gold standard for evidence. The RCT was used to examine the role of treatment of sex offenders. The article was broken down into different sections. The first section of the study was to broken into the natural offending pathways of sexual offenders. The study shows the treatment for sex offenders only had a 1% effectiveness for those who were prosecuted and/or convicted. Most of the sample were drawn from the minority group. The study shows that sexual deviancy and anti-social orientation contribute to sex offending. The second portion of the study was comparing the sex offending treatment literature. The
study shows how the studies regarding treatment of sex offenders can be confusing. Some studies shows improvement with hormonal treatments and cognitive behavioral treatments but other studies do not show any improvement. The third section focuses on psychological interventions for sex offenders. This portion of the study had a sample of 944 participants who meet the RCT criteria. These studies were previously done and reviewed with follow-ups. The results for these studies comparing the psychological interventions provided no evidence that was positive or negative for psychological intervention. The fourth section was a review of pharmacological interventions for sex offenders. Over the past 20 years there have been no RCT’s completed regarding sex offenders using medication. There as study completed that composed of a sample of 123 participants. The study evaluated the medication the participants were using based on different types such as testosterone suppressing drugs, anti-psychotic drugs, placebo and psychological interventional against a psychological intervention. The overall results couldn’t give much information because the study was small.