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Hall

Sexual offender recidivism revisited: a meta-analysis of recent treatment studies

Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology 13(5) 802-809 (1995)

from personal e-mail

Yet Hall states that "Up to 1989 the general conclusion was that treatment had no effect on recidivism" and while Hanson et al. found "some evidence that treatment reduced recidivism rates of child molesters... both reviews, however, recognised that any firm conclusions were impossible considering the weaknesses in the research. Given this, it is possible that reliance on treatment of sex offenders may be a misallocation of resources. Hall suggests that "effective treatments directed toward the most common forms of sexual aggression may indeed be a better deterrent of sexually aggressive behaviour than those treatments that are restricted to legally apprehended sexual offenders..."