Sexual Abuse: Family Education and Treatment Program
Problems addressed
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Description

This is a community-based care and treatment program for sexually assaulted adolescents and their families (including child victims of sexual violence within the family). The objective of the program is the assessment, treatment and care of adolescents, based on cognitive-behavioral and relapse prevention interventions.

The program addresses relevant issues such as denial, accountability, inappropriate sexual behaviors and desires, and victim empathy, applying an individualized approach with both youth and their families that focuses on developing social-emotional competencies, as well as trust and intimacy, building self-esteem, and training in self-regulation of emotional expression. The intervention includes individual, family and group sessions, and lasts 16 months.

Impact evaluations

An impact evaluation evidenced that, after a 20-year follow-up period, intervention participants showed a significantly lower likelihood of being charged with sexual recidivism, nonsexual violent recidivism, nonviolent recidivism, or any type of recidivism, compared with similar control cases who did not access the program intervention [1].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Worling, J. R., Litteljohn, A. & Bookalam, D. (2010). 20-year prospective follow-up study of specialized treatment for adolescents who offended sexually. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 28(1), 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.912

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