An alternative way of treating young offenders with mental health or psycho-sexual problems has been declared a success in the US. Multisystemic Therapy (MST) was tested by a juvenile court in Illinois and showed remarkably positive results.
The study involved 127 young people accused of sex offences and ordered to attend sex offender treatment. A total of 67 were told to undergo MST with the rest placed in the juvenile sex offender unit to participate in weekly treatment groups.
The results showed that the young people placed in the MST group were much more successful in their treatment than their counterparts who were in the existing sex offender unit. Problem behaviour, such as having unprotected sex, was significantly reduced while other behaviour such as delinquency and substance abuse also fell when compared to the other unit. The juvenile offenders undergoing MST were also less likely to be removed from their home in the year after treatment started.
The young people involved, who ranged in age from 11 to 18, were treated at home and in school with their parents or caregivers involved. Part of MST is about giving parents and caregivers the resources and skills they need to deal with the problems specific to their child, while also preparing the juvenile with the skills and resources to handle the problems they run into both in the family and in the outside world.
The sex offender MST focused on dealing with the perpetrator and family’s inability to accept that the offence had been committed, on reducing any access to potential victims and on promoting more age-appropriate relationships.
The study concluded that family and community-based interventions such as MST are much more effective in treating juvenile antisocial and sex offender behaviour.