Background: Various studies have demonstrated that people who do not complete sex offender treatment have higher recidivism rates than completers or untreated controls. The mechanism behind this association, however, remains unclear. One explanation is that responsivity issues are more prevalent in high-risk offenders, making treatment failure and recidivism more likely, especially if treatment intensity is insufficient to match criminal needs. In addition, dropout may have a negative effect on offenders by increasing feelings of frustration or self-doubt.
Aims:To retest for a link between treatment discontinuation and recidivism by sex offenders and analyse the mechanisms mediating the link between treatment discontinuation and their recidivism. We hypothesise that non-completion has a negative effect on recidivism after controlling for a priori differences in risk of recidivism.
Methods:We analysed data from all sex offenders released from Bavarian prisons between 2004 and 2015 who had participated in prison-based social-therapeutic treatment and compared non-completers (n = 100) to offenders ending treatment as planned (n = 428). Criminal risk, offence char-