Treatment Highlights

• Multiple license facility - Both residential and secure licenses to meet educational, recreational, rehabilitative, and social needs.
  
  
• Staff ratios - as low as 1-to-4 for more intensive and constructive counseling.
  
  
• Licensed Psychologists and LPCs - with advanced skills and training to provide state of the art techniques.
  
  
• Staff Psychologist - to supervise staff therapists.
  
  
• Quality school program offering junior and senior high school education and instruction with a PA certified teaching staff and Doctoral level Director.
  
  
• Complete Health care - covering medical, dental, and psychiatric treatments.
  
  
• Family Therapy - to improve communication skills between residents and parents and to clarify appropriate roles and boundaries.
  
  
• Professional and responsive support staff.
  
  
• Victim reconciliation services - to allow for confrontation, apology, and discussion between offender and victim(s) when deemed appropriate by all involved.
  
  
• Physiological testing - PPG, Abel, and Polygraph to increase accountability & provide objective measures of sexual interest.
  
  
• Case management upon release - working directly with criminal justice professionals for continual care requirements.
  

Why Treat Sexual Offenders

Treating Adolescent Sex Offenders for the Victim
Sexual assault is now recognized as one of the more severe problems in modern Western Society, ranking with non-sexual crime, poverty, environmental damage and substance abuse as a societal ill. In 1955 Edwin Sutherland, a renowned sociologist, was asked why society should treat rather than incarcerate sexual offenders. His response was that sexual offenders should be treated because of the unique harm they inflict upon their victims. A harm that is long lasting & pervasive. A harm that may be preventable. We agree.

While no academic training or advanced degree programs exist that specifically address the treatment needs of sexual offenders nationally. A few programs, such as Mathom House in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania have pioneered work in the successful rehabilitation of sexual offenders. Encouraging results have been reported in the treatment of sexual offenders by many facilities.

Research indicates that a large number of adult sexual offenders began their offending careers as adolescents. It has also been found that clinical interventions with youthful child molesters and rapists has reduced recidivism in comparison to non-treatment groups; and where a new sexual offense re-occurs it is generally less severe than the initial offense.

What Role Can The Justice System Play
As many Juvenile Justice Systems adopt a Balanced Approach to community protection there has been a tendency to de-emphasize rehabilitation and increase surveillance and prosecution. The idea that a trail em', nail em', and jail em' approach can substitute for a therapeutic model is ill advised. A new literature is developing that reveals that harsh, disrespectful treatment, that fails to treat the offender with respect and dignity fosters an attitude of defiance. Unfair or overly punitive treatment at the hands of the police or courts can have the effect of reducing the levels of voluntary cooperation and compliance that are essential for the effective management of juvenile offenders in the community.

The prosecution of sexual offenders serves purposes of accountability, in that it informs the offender that their behavior is unacceptable and that it will be sanctioned, it is unlikely to be a deterrent. However, prosecution does serve societal ends. It is helpful for offenders who often deny their guilt and it is effective when it is tied to a comprehensive treatment strategy that meets the needs of the victim and the offender.

Clearly, the most effective approach to community safety is one in which juvenile justice authorities work in concert with victims's advocates and sex offender treatment personal. It is not enough to simply mandate treatment. Probation officers should be assigned to specialized investigative, supervisory and after-care units. Probation officers should have direct access to therapists and clients while treatment is in progress. Long term monitoring is essential.

In conclusion, the obligation to protect the community goes beyond simply incapacitating the youthful offender. While community safety and the needs of the community must predominate, effective treatment can be used as a technique to reduce recidivism and provide care to the families of the offender. The treatment of adolescent sexual offenders is a specialty and it should only be entrusted to experts who have a demonstrated track record of success in the field.

Donald J. Tangora, Ph.D.