Québec Interventions with Adolescent Sexual Aggressors
To meet the needs of adolescent sexual abuse perpetrators (A.S.A.P.), various treatments have been implemented in North America: introspection- or education- oriented group interventions, family interventions, cognitive behavioural therapies and relapse prevention strategies. No study has yet drawn the picture of actual practices in centers which, in Quebec, work with A.S.A.P. By means of individual interviews, all directors of these specialized treatment centres were met. More specifically, this paper aims: i) to identify the general tendencies, resemblances and differences emerging between the interventions proposed by nine treatment centers; ii) to understand what, according to the participants, specify the treatment for A.S.A.P. compared to the one proposed with the adults and iii) to compare the results according to the center who offers the services: “pedopsychiatric settings” versus “psychosocial or community settings”. It emerges from those interviews that the vast majority of actual programs are offered on an outpatient basis (or “external”). On the whole, the functioning of the nine treatment centers relies on small teams, among which are found a majority of sex therapists and psychologists. In the majority of cases, the initial reference process is guided by the two major laws for juveniles. In all treatment centers, various inventories and structured questionnaires were translated from English to French and are since then used with adolescents. Thereafter, although different exclusion criteria to each program exist, the youth is usually referred to a group or an individual intervention. Generally, interventions with parents are uncommon, despite the fact that all interviewees consider it should be a priority. Results allow concluding that Quebec interventions resemble other North American interventions, with the exception of the lesser importance given in Quebec to recidivism risk prediction or multisystemic interventions (or MST). Within Quebec's treatment centers, some differences also appear when adolescent psychiatric settings are compared to psychosocial intervention settings.