Arts Therapies and Sexual Offending by Simon Hastilow and Marian Liebmann

Author:Simon Hastilow and Marian Liebmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2021-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Current trends in the understanding and treatment of juvenile sex offenders

There is increasingly an understanding that JSOs have complex needs that are different to those of adult sex offenders (ASOs) and require a correspondingly complex treatment approach (Fortune 2013; Letourneau and Minor 2005). Research has revealed a number of psychosocial factors linked to juvenile sex offending and has also highlighted the benefits of interventions that address them. These factors include family difficulties, attachment difficulties, loneliness, poor peer relationships and general social skills, issues of identity, emotional regulation difficulties, experience of trauma, including abuse, impulsivity, low self-esteem, cognitive distortions and conduct difficulties (Fortune 2013; Hunter 1999; Marshall, Hudson and Hodkinson 1993; McMackin et al. 2002; van Wijk et al. 2005). The treatments purported to have the best evidence base are two talking therapies: multisystemic therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy (Faniff and Becker 2006). However, many authors (e.g. Littel 2005) have questioned the validity of the research base for these treatments, which rarely include long-term recidivism data or figures for attrition (dropout) and refusal at point of offer. Underwood, von Dresner and Phillips (2006) also question the heterogeneity of research sample populations that have not represented the true heterogeneity of JSOs as a whole and in which, in particular, ethnic minorities and young people with mental health difficulties have been under-represented. The Youth Justice Board (2008) summarized the evidence for treatments with the conclusion that there is little significant evidence to suggest that any one treatment is better than others but that young people who have some kind of treatment are less likely to re-offend than those that do not.

There are a few examples of the use of arts therapies with JSOs in the literature (e.g. Gerber 1994; Skaggs 1997). I could find no evidence for the effectiveness of arts therapies with JSOs, but there is some evidence of their effectiveness with ASOs (e.g. Smeijsters and Cleven 2006; Watson 2002). There is, however, evidence that arts therapies can be effective with some of the previously identified risk factors for juvenile sex offending including self-esteem in previously sexually abused adolescents (Clendenon-Wallen 1991), trauma symptoms in sexually abused children and adolescents (Pifalo 2006), social skills in children and adolescents (Gooding 2011) and impulsivity in adolescents (Rickson 2006). I have also shown in my own research that arts therapies lead to positive outcomes for young people with SEMH in a study that included a control group (Cobbett 2016b). This is relevant as young people with SEMH typically experience the complex mix of difficulties identified as risk factors for JSOs.

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