Final results from a longitudinal investigation of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment with sexual offenders are presented. The study was a randomized clinical trial that compared the reoffense rates of offenders treated in an inpatient relapse prevention (RP) program with the rates of offenders in two (untreated) prison control groups. No significant differences were found among the three groups in their rates of sexual or violent reoffending over an 8-year follow-up period. This null result was found for both rapists and child molesters, and was confirmed in analyses using time to reoffense as the outcome and those controlling for static risk differences across the groups. Closer examination of the RP group's performance revealed that individuals who met the program's treatment goals had lower reoffense rates than those who did not. Although our results do not generally support the efficacy of the RP model, they do suggest a number of ways in which this kind of treatment program can be improved. This study also emphasizes the importance of including appropriate control groups in treatment outcome research. Additional controlled investigations are needed to address the many questions that remain about when and how treatment works for sexual offenders.

Preliminary results from a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment with sex offenders are presented. The study's research design includes three groups: a treatment group, a volunteer control group (those who volunteered for but did not receive treatment), and a nonvolunteer control group (subjects who refused the opportunity for treatment). Although the treatment group had the lowest reoffense rates for both sex and other violent crimes, main effects analyses did not yield conclusive results regarding the program's effectiveness. The results highlight the importance of including appropriate comparison groups, managing attrition from both treatment and methodological standpoints, examining sex and other violent offenses separately as outcome variables, employing tests with adequate statistical power, and analyzing data while taking into account time at risk for reoffense.

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Adolescents' and mothers' understanding of children's self-determination and nurturance rights was examined in the context of the home. In individual interviews, 141 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their mothers responded to hypothetical vignettes in which a child story character wished to exercise a right that conflicted with parental practices. For each vignette, participants were asked to judge whether the story character should have the right in question and to provide a justification for their decision. Generally, eighth and tenth graders were more likely than their mothers to endorse requests for self-determination and less likely than their mothers to support requests for nurturance. Mothers of tenth graders were more likely to support requests for self-determination and less likely to favor adolescents' request for nurturance in the home than were mothers of sixth and eighth graders. In terms of reasoning, adolescents and mothers were more likely to consider the individuals' rights when discussing self-determination situations, whereas nurturance situations elicited responses pertaining to participants' understanding of familial roles and relationships. Furthermore, mothers'Requests for reprints should be sent to