Psychological treatment and therapeutic change in incarcerated rapists

Abstract

Most Spanish prisons provide specialised treatment for incarcerated sex offenders, both rapists and child molesters. This treatment is a cognitive-behavioural intervention that has shown relative effectiveness in previous research. With regard to offenders' rehabilitation, recidivism assessments are necessary as a final measure of treatment effectiveness. However, the evaluation of recidivism by itself does not provide sufficient information on the treatment process and the specific effects that treated subjects could undergo. This paper aims to analyse the therapeutic effectiveness of psychological treatment provided to rapists (in general, males sentenced for committing a sexual offence against women). To this aim, a group of treated rapists (N = 153) serving a sentence in prison was analysed. Using a specially designed scale (PASSO), the global therapeutic change and ten specific variables (including assertiveness, readiness to change, cognitive distortions, impulsivity, etc.) were assessed. The within-subjects comparison showed that treated sex offenders improved, in therapeutic terms, globally as well as in most of the specific variables assessed (improvements not experimented by the control group). Also, different therapeutic subscales showed relevant associations between them. The findings regarding treatment effectiveness are discussed.

Sexism in Adolescent Relationships: A Systematic Review

“…They are also more emotionally dependent on their partners (Pradas & Perles, 2012) and their romantic relationships are of worse quality (Viejo et al, 2015). These findings could be showing the importance of sexist attitudes and, thus, the differentiation of gender roles between both sexes in harmful forms of intimate interaction among adolescents, as suggested in other studies with young people and adults (Garrido-Macías, Valor-Segura, & Expósito, 2017;Martín-Fernández et al, 2018;Martínez-Catena & Redondo, 2017;Moral, García, Cuetos, & Sirvent, 2017;Novo, Herbón, & Amado, 2016). Likewise, the fact that sexist adolescents are attracted to sexist partners, as indicated by some authors (Montañés et al, 2013), could be the reason for the persistence of sexist attitudes among adolescents.…”

“…For this reason, it would be interesting to investigate how the two types of sexism are related to different types of violence in men and women, taking into account cultural aspects of the different countries. In this way, useful information could be obtained for the development of prevention and intervention programs for different types of intimate partner violence (Ferrer-Pérez, Ferreiro-Basurto, Navarro-Guzmán, & Bosch-Fiol, 2016;Martínez-Catena & Redondo, 2017;Sjödin, Wallinius, Billstedt, Hofvander, & Nilsson, 2017).…”

Sexism and sexual risk behavior in adolescents: Gender differences

“…This study also shows that the males who report a lower proportion of condom use are those who maintain HS to a greater extent. A possible explanation for this is that, with the objective of conforming to their traditional gender roles and in order to exercise power over women in the decision-making process, including in sexual relations ( Martínez-Catena and Redondo, 2017 , Pulerwitz et al, 2000 ), the most hostile sexist males use condoms less frequently during sexual relations. In fact, a positive association has been identified between traditional gender ideology and sexual risk behaviors and beliefs, such as inconsistent condom use, less self-efficacy when using condoms or negative attitudes towards their use ( De Meyer et al, 2014 , Grose et al, 2014 , Lotfi et al, 2016 , Santana et al, 2006 ).…”

Validation of the Spanish Version of the Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASEX) Using Self-Reported and Psychophysiological Measures

“…More evidences of validity, exploring sexual functioning in both victims of sexual harassment and sexual offenders or aggressors would provide a multicontext measure, by also considering the impact of perceptions and ideology, which have several implications on sexual experiences of harassment (Herrera, Herrera, & Expósito, 2018), as well as attitudes and types of aggression have on sexual aggression (Moyano, Monge, & Sierra, 2017). Align with this, some recent studies are aimed to develop scales that are able to capture the therapeutic effectiveness of treatment of sexual aggressors (see Martínez-Catena & Redondo, 2017). In this sense, a longitudinal study should provide validity for the ASEX as a follow up measure.…”