Most research dealing with the effectiveness of sex-offender therapy has been quantitative, mainly looking at the sexual recidivism rates “as the primary measure of successful outcomes in criminal rehabilitation, while other indicators of client improvement and well-being have been ignored” (Levenson et al., 2020; National Academies of Sciences & Medicine, 2022). Much of the qualitative research on sex-offender treatment appears to be conducted outside of the Unite States.
In Learning from Consumers of Mandated Sex-Offending Programs: “It’s Not Treatment, I Wish It Was.”, by Jill S. Levenson, Melissa D. Grady, Heike Lasoski, and Kyle T. Collins, a qualitative study was done to “explore clients’ perceptions of sex-offending treatment.”
“People required to register as sex offenders and their family members were recruited with assistance from several registry reform advocacy groups in the United States.” The survey was anonymous and confidential.
Individuals felt their treatment was a positive experience when the following objectives were met by the therapist:
- Helped to gain insight about themselves
- Peer support and interaction in group sessions
- Positive experience with the therapist
- Learning ways to manage problematic behavior
Individuals felt their therapy was more of a negative experience when the following techniques were used:
- Felt coerced to make certain statements, whether true or not
- Being treated disrespectfully by therapist
- Feeling their particular therapist was unqualified
- Use of outdated methods that were not research based or individualized
This study should be read by all therapists and clients, along with other stakeholders. Hopefully the findings of this study will be incorporated into future sex-offender therapy programs everywhere.
Queensland police are struggling to keep tabs on the rising number of sex offenders on the child protection register, a report into the scheme suggests.
About 3,163 sex offenders were required to report to police across the state last year – a figure authorities say increases by at least 100 every year.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/volume-of-sex-offenders-poses-monitoring-challenge-for-queensland-police-report-suggests/ar-AA1cTVEO
Multiple studies have found that those who commit child sex abuse are at a higher risk of suicide than other types of offenders.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/child-sex-offender-eats-poisoned-snickers-bar-to-try-and-kill-himself-in-the-dock/ar-AA1cSGJ9
I think the suicide risk is also true for those who are required to register (esp. in Florida), whether they actually committed a crime or not.
Pre trial I had, on the advice of my attorney, voluntarily attended the county approved group sex offender therapy. I found it to be completely non-therapeutic. To me the goal seemed to lye in adding shame and guilt to the client more so than actually helping or healing. After my short sentence in county jail I was forced to return to this group. There were men who had been going there 1-15 years. I knew they would never “graduate” me from their program. I asked my attorney to arrange a private therapist to “treat” me. The court agreed and I was given over to the care of a gentle soul who spoke more about my favorite restaurants and family and my music. In a year of sessions with him, rarely did we discuss anything involving sexual offending. He treated me like a person and when I felt it was time I asked him if he would write my PO and tell her I was rehabilitated. He agreed and shortly thereafter I was discharged from probation. I have no doubt that had I remained in that group therapy I would still be there. On a side note, when the court informed them I would be leaving the main therapist had a hissy fit of gargantuan proportions, lashing out at me calling me treacherous for pulling something so “underhanded”. I definitely feel like I was lucky getting away from them.
After many months of ‘counseling’, I asked my court-ordered group therapist (at ITM) to refer me to another general therapist outside of ITM. While continuing my regular ITM sessions, I also saw and paid that new therapist, more than several times, and my ITM therapist then graduated me. Maybe I finally paid enough money into the Psychological Industrial Complex (PIC) to justify my release.
RayO, my bet is that ITM was afraid of being contradicted in court records (which are also public records) by the treatment provider you paid. I base this on my own experience because I hired three different medical and psychological/psychiatric professionals to prove in court that the ITM provider was incompetent. This cost me more than $25,000 but was worth every penny.
Can you offer the Private therapist office info? I’d like to do this.
Reading this article then the comments I realize that me here in California and my other fellow brethren in Florida go thru similar not-punishments.
I too graduated three times. I too have bad poly experiences.
This madness needs to end.
Grr Arr
Like most i think its just another way for the courts to take more and more money from people that don’t make that much to start with because of the restrictions. I am sure that it will help some, but sitting in a room with 10-15 other people that have done in some cases very horrible things compared to what you have been charged with can damage people in the long run. Like the offender/predator verbiage the state uses the therapy should be set up the same way offenders in with offenders and predators in with predators or even better one on one with individuals, Funny thing is even if you get nothing out of it and want to leave early the people running it don’t want to lose their income so they tell you that you need it or that you need to participate more in the conversation before they even start to think of releasing you. The courts don’t take it seriously of you have completed it when it comes to reducing your sentence or getting off the registry all together so why should we take it seriously when forced to go?
For those who have posted so many complaints about ITM, I had similar complaints about my treatment provider here in Georgia. What I did was raise formal ethics complaints against them with every private organization they belonged to – ATSA (they’re a joke, btw), the APA, AMA, et al. The short version is that they fast-tracked me through their stupid program afterward; I suspect their accreditations from those organizations were more important to them than one single cash cow. I don’t know what changes to their program, if any, were made later.
Find out what organizations ITM belongs to and read those Codes of Ethics and/or Professional Conduct. Thoroughly detail your allegations and what explain why you think it violates whatever rules in those codes. Make copies and complain first to the provider (if you don’t your complaints won’t even be looked at). When they blow you off (and they will), forward your complaints to those organizations, adding that you took your complaints to the provider first and their response (especially if they threaten to go to your POs about it).
No matter what the POs tell you, complaining about a treatment provider to a private organization to which they belong is not and can never be a violation of parole or probation. At most, they can only try to violate you on something trumped up. If they do that, get your written complaints to the court somehow and get it in the record.
ITM seems to not have a route to completion of group therapy. There are people in my group who have been there for years. It can really kill people’s motivation to change and do the work because if there isn’t an end game what’s the point?
ITM’s model is, you don’t complete treatment unless and until you complete probation/supervised release. By collecting co-pays and whatever they charge the governments, that’s how they stay in business. And their soncalled therapists are nothing more than snitches who work as proxy probation officers.
Therapy is all about them using fear, guilt and shame against you to make you docile and compliant. It’s basically emotional manipulation designed to demoralize and dis empower so you don’t fight back.
ITM Group is a pathetic money racket in the state. They do not provide any real treatment. They are there to collect as much money as they can from people sentenced to such programs and they are often the only provider in the area. They have now moved to a model that basically aims to keep the client in their program perpetually until they end their probation term, steadily collecting weekly payments. The “therapists” are a joke. They are often hostile toward the clients. The clients live in fear the whole time they are in attendance of the group sessions because they have to say exactly the right things or face dire consequences. Polygraph tests are required to be taken by providers that ITM sanctions, and they are known to intentionally fail people for more profit. (Polygraphs are junk science anyway and are completely unreliable).
Someone needs to do something about that company. Seriously.
Couldn’t agree more – I was initially sent to ITM Group for treatment and later after carefully re-reading my sentencing paperwork discovered that indeed I was required to do treatment with a state qualified therapist versus the probation department’s mandatory taking of ITM Group therapy. This happened after I questioned why I was never given the “Final Exam” after completing the “Course” 3 times and was used by ITM to help others that were new to class in a current “Module” to help get them caught up. I thought my diligence to show “proactive production” would be my fast track to getting out of the system. I took 6 polygraphs along the way – passing all of them. I approached them numerous times about taking my final but was told over and over I was not ready. Not ready? 3 complete times thru their designed course never failing and trying to be a better person were not apparently the ways to “Graduate” to be a productive member of society. But was productive was the cost of going to feed the system. But I finally to matters into my own hands and approached my probation officer about leaving ITM and was told I could not. I showed him the paperwork on my orders from the court saying taking therapy with a licensed by the state therapist. I found one that was actually a former ITM Group therapist and she was able to take me on a individual basis. Well 3 months later after I proved to her I did know the material I was released from “Therapy” 3 years prior to my probation ending. I was able to retain the rights to my child for overnight stays ((while on probation) with her help as well and have had a great relationship with my son and former ex whose daughter was my accuser. Things can change but it takes you doing these by being “proactive” – that is the only thing I can thank ITM for was drilling into my head that the only person who controls me is me and the only person that cares more about me is still me!
I’ve been doing my own research for 10 years as a client. Been through more than a half dozen therapists & of them all, maybe 3 have been “ideal” without imposing their own will & beliefs on their clients. It’s clear there’s no uniform method of instruction (when there COULD be) and almost ALL treatment methods are corrupted by blanket judgments fulcrumed upon government narratives. From my journey, the most negative aspect of treatment that should be removed are the “therapists” that insist every individual, no matter their offense, must Unequivocally admit (to progress or complete treatment) that they are a pedophile, whom no matter what treatment they recieved, will inevitably reoffend to sexually assault a child.
I had the misfortune of going to ITM and being out of pocket for $12,000 for treatment which consisted of a “therapist” who mainly specialized in taking attendance. He was oblivious to the issues registrant faces such as voluisa driving ordinance. And the anxiety that I faced such as what if those ordinances come here. I told him he doesn’t advocate for us when new laws are purposed but yet somehow he helps us. ITM did nothing to lessen our burden but yet somehow ITM is supposedly providing treatment. It went from 1 group a day were I was at to 3 groups that day. ITM had no incentive to graduate people out, more money in their pockets. The guy in charge of the program never came to see us face to face but yet somehow he was able to determine who was ready to graduate by what we wrote on a piece of paper , I guess he was too busy helping himself to all the money he stole from us every week and After finally EOS from that POS program and getting a meaningless piece of paper that does you nothing. I told them if we’re on the registry until we die how do you help us you provided no services, you render no aide, nothing was what came out his mouth which summed up the amount of advice that ITM provided.
Thank you for conducting this research and thanks to those who submitted their responses. Although it took many years for me to achieve graduation from my therapy program, I value all of the discussions, encouragement, and even the criticisms and suggestions for ways to improve my life and thinking.
I strongly believe that those who are successful in their therapy programs should be exempted from the registry – hopefully the registry will be done away with – someday.