Men with intellectual disabilities who display sexually abusive behaviour

• Main Author: Heaton, Kathryn
• Published: Lancaster University 2010
• Subjects: 616.8583
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.552825

Objectives and Literature: Some men with intellectual disabilities perpetrate sexually abusive behaviour. Remarkably little research has been conducted with this client group, however, particularly on recidivism rates. Therefore, sexual recidivism was explored for men with intellectual disabilities in a systematic literature review. Secondly, in a research project, recidivism was investigated in a follow-up of cognitive-behaviour therapy groups (using the SOTSEC-ID model) for men with intellectual disabilities who have displayed sexually abusive behaviour. Methods: Sixteen articles were critically reviewed for the literature review, and for the research paper follow-up data from 34 men who had attended cognitive- behavioural treatment were gathered from seven sites across the UK. Results: Methodological limitations were of concern for most of the papers reviewed and consequently it was not possible to synthesise the rates of recidivism across the studies. Only two papers were identified that reported predictors of sexual recidivism in this population, therefore, there is not currently enough research to be confident about what the predictors are. For the 34 men who were followed-up, however, /' recidivism rates seemed low and it was found that many of the gains made during treatment were maintained at follow-up. Conclusions: Research about the sexual recidivism rates and predictors of sexual recidivism perpetrated by men with intellectual disabilities is in its early stages. There is a need for better quality of reporting in the future. The follow-up study lends support to the view that cognitive-behaviour therapy can be effective in the 'long- term' for men with intellectual disabilities who sexually offend. Critique: Questions of the research process revealed pragmatic design compromises and a number of challenges. Despite these, the study is one of the largest treatment outcome trials, with one of the longest follow-up periods, and so it offers important information about men with intellectual disabilities who sexually offend.