International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders


The International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders is an international non-profit professional organization based in Vienna committed to the promotion of research of and treatment for sex offenders throughout the world.

History

IATSO was founded on March 24, 1998 in Caracas, Venezuela during the 5th International Conference on the Treatment of Sex Offenders. They publish Sex Offender Treatment, an international peer-reviewed journal open to all scientists and practitioners researching sexual abuse.

Board

Board Members

In 2014 the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to William L. Marshall, he received this award the 13th IATSO Conference in Porto, Portugal. Marshall was the Director of Rockwood Psychological Services. He has four hundred and seventeen publications including twenty books. His latest book is "A strength-based approach to the treatment of sexual offenders". Marshall also won the "Book of the Year", this award is from the Society for Sex Therapy and Research. He was the President of the IATSO from 2008 to 2012.
In 2016, Friedemann Pfafflin was awarded the second Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th IATSO Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the founding President of IATSO. Pfafflin trained as a psychoanalyst and a psychiatrist. He is also one of the co-founders of a few scientific journals including, Recht & Psychiatry , Zeitschrift fur Sexualforschung , and lastly The International Journal of Transgenderism. He has more than four hundred and twenty publications and has wrote, edited, and co-edited nineteen books. When it comes to research he focuses on sex research, transsexualism and transgenderism, the history of German psychiatry during Nazi times, and forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Poster Awards

The Poster Award is an award that is given to students, both graduate and/or Ph.D. students. The Poster Award is given at the biannual IATSO Conferences, students who receive this award are presenting outstanding posters as first-authors. The recipients of this reward also receive financial support in addition to the award itself.
At the 13th IATSO Conference in Porto, Portugal in 2014, Daniel Turner of Germany was awarded first place for his poster called "Working with Children as a Risk Factor for Sexual offending - The Mediating Role of Pedophilic Interests, Antisocial Behavior, and Hypersexuality". The recipient of second place for her poster, "Characteristics of Sexually Abused Children and Children Exhibiting Problematic Sexual Behaviors: Use of Variable- and Person-Oriented Approaches to Distinguish" was Isabelle Boisvert of Canada.
At the 14th IATSO Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2016 the first place recipient was Andrew E. Brankley of Canada for his poster "Cross-cultural validity of the STATIC-99R and STABLE-2007 risk tools: Results from a perspective Canadian field study". The recipient of second place was Coralie Boillat of Switzerland for her poster "Correlations of childhood trauma experiences with personality traits and sex-offence-related behavior in adult contact sex offenders". Lastly, the third place recipient was Priscilla Gregorio Hertz of Germany on her poster "A cross-validation of the revised version of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide using a sexual offender sample from Austria".

Standards of Care for the Treatment of Adult Sexual Offenders

Every profession has their own standards of care, but the following treatments are a few standards of care that are used as a set of guidelines for any and all professions. Two types of treatment commonly used for the treatment of sexual offenders include psychological and biomedical treatment. The psychological treatment includes different therapies that were made to treat sexual offenders. Both of the different treatments are based on different psychological and psychiatric theories that target the initial paraphilia sexual offending. The psychological and psychiatric care are provided in different forms. The different forms can be either individual, couple, family, or even group settings. The treatments offered are created and used to prevent any offending behavior and further victimization of others. The biomedical treatment is the use of pharmacological treatment. This type of therapy in the past has included the use of anti-androgens, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety, anti epileptic, antipsychotic, or other types of medicine. However, note that biomedical treatment is not limited to these medications. All medications have different turnouts for different individuals, so it is crucial to find the best fit and the most successful medication for that specific person to help treat them and to prevent them from offending again in the future.

Sexual Offenders

A sexual offender can be any gender, any race, any religion, any age, and also any social class. A sexual offender is an individual who commits a crime that is considered to be sexually as legally defined in his or her own legal jurisdiction. A sexual offense involves participating in illegal sexual behavior. It is important to be aware that there are major differences throughout the world in regards as to what is considered as a sexual, every place has different laws and regulations. Paraphilia is an erotosexual condition that can occur in both men and women react to, or rely on, any irregular or socially insufferable stimulus in either imagery or fantasy for erotic-sexual arousal and the achievement of an orgasm.

Characteristics of Persistent Sexual Offenders

A meta-analysis of eight-two recidivism studies identified various sexual presences and antisocial orientation, which is considered to be predictors of sexual recidivism for both adults and adolescent sexual offenders. Some of the active risk factors that could possibly be useful to treatment targets are sexual preoccupations and general self-regulation problems. Elements that are usually brought up and addressed in sexual offender programs had either little or no relationship with sexual and/or violent recidivism.

Characteristics of Online Sexual Offenders

When talking about online sexual offenders, this means those sexual offenders who use the Internet to offend. The Internet supplies new opportunities and ways for sexual offenders to take advantage by abusing someone and more. With the use of the Internet anyone can do basically whatever they want and whenever and wherever they want. It is extremely easy for people to use the Internet in negative ways such as finding potential victims for sexual crimes. The number of sexual offenders whom are using the Internet to commit sex crimes has increased in the past five years and is continuing to increase because the Internet is expanding and always updating too. Using the Internet as a tool to assist these individuals for these crimes is becoming more and more common. The Internet makes it possible to collect and distribute child pornography. The Internet can also be used as a tool to lure potential victims. It is important to be aware that different typologies of online offenders do exist. Online offenders are commonly characterized as those individuals who access child pornography due to impulse without any specific sexual interest in children; access child pornography to satisfy sexual fantasies but do not commit contact sex offenses; make and handout child pornography just for financial gain and benefit; and use the Internet to facilitate contact sex offenses.

Treatment

Sexual offenders create many challenges for treatment providers probation officers, and even just regular people in their community. Sexual offenders create challenges because the treatment providers and probation officers have to decide what care is best and what limitations are necessary for that specific individual. Every sex offender is different which is why their care and limits need to be properly customized for that individual in order to protect the people of the community and also to successfully prevent them from reoffending. The management of risk is an important part of treatment, but if there is only a limited focus on risk then it can lead to excessively confrontational therapeutic encounters, no close relationship between the offenders and clinicians, break up and mechanistic treatment delivery. The goals of sexual offender treatment is to achieve a goal that the offender has been working toward, which most of the time the goal is to not reoffend. This can be achieved by giving them hope, gaining self-esteem, making goals, creating strong relationships, and also working with the offender regularly. When it comes to the general criminal population treatment focuses on risk, need, and responsivity. However, when applied to sexual offenders two problems are risk assessment and treatment targets. Responsivity issues are the parts that affect how much the client benefit or fail to benefit from the treatment and care programs. This proves that the treatment of sexual offenders has to be specific and different than another offenders treatment. Treatment of sexual offenders is very complicated and it is crucial to take the proper guidelines for the treatment to not only be successful but also to be long-lasting.

Juvenile Sexual Offenders

Youths between the ages of 12-18 who have been either officially charged with a sexual crime or have performed an act that could be officially charged, or committed sexually abusive and/or aggressive behavior are those who are considered to be juvenile sexual offenders. Some examples of a sexual crime can include child molestation, rape, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and more. Assessments for juvenile sexual offenders is a procedure of information collections. The information will include evaluations conducted by psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers or other to develop successful intervention strategies for that specific juvenile, making placement choices, and/or informing legal or social service agencies if necessary. The treatment of juveniles is a set of different interventions based on a specialized assessment that can include psychotherapy, family therapy, medical treatments, or other psychical interventions. Probation supervision and residential placement are not considered treatment for this specific age group. However, they are still important aspects of intervention with juvenile sexual offenders.

Principles of Care for Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended

Family sometimes is a reason as to why juveniles offend. Some characteristics of the family of a juvenile sexual offender are troubled adolescent behavior, environment, and also has shown effects such as use of aggression and/or force. When a professional is deciding on a treatment for the adolescent they need to view the adolescent within the context of their family, school, and other social systems in order to fully understand and decide the treatment and care for the juvenile. Another important element to keep in mind when choosing a treatment is to base it on a developmental perspective, which means it is sensitive to developmental change. This is necessary because during adolescence the brain is not fully developmental and is subjected to change. During assessment and treatment focus not only on the risks of the youths but also their strengths. Keep in mind that sexual interests of youth do change over adolescence and sexual orientation changes as well. A "one size fits all" approach can not be used because youth who have committed sexual crimes are a diverse population, meaning they are all different in numerous ways. Treatment response to sexual abuse by juveniles is based on relapsed prevention, offense cycle, and presumption of sexual dividends. Some research coming out suggests that the successful treatments are those which include community-based and involve supportive adults in the youth's life. Something to keep in mind is label the behavior of the youth, not their identity, because it helps to make sure that youths do not develop a view of themselves as unable to develop into "healthy" individuals. If a professional labels the youth as preverted among more names then it will negatively affect the youth and those around. Sexual offender registries and community notifications should not be applied to adolescents because during this time in their lives their brains are not fully developed. Interventions need to be based off scientific investigation, valid tests of efficacy and effectiveness. When a professional is partaking in interventions, they can not be based on a person's personal or popular beliefs.

Professional Competence

"The following are minimal standards for a professional responsible for the assessment and/or treatment of a child or juvenile who has committed a sexual offense:
  1. A minimum of a master's degree or its equivalent or medical degree in a clinical field granted by an institution of higher education accredited by a national/regional accrediting board or institution.
  2. Demonstrated competence in therapy indicated by a license to practice medicine, psychology, clinical social work, professional counseling, or marriage and family therapy.
  3. Specialized competence in the assessment and treatment of children and juveniles, as demonstrated by board certification, specialized training, or supervised clinical experience, along with continuing education.
  4. Knowledge of child and juvenile sexual development, as demonstrated by specialized training or continuing education.
  5. Demonstrated training and competence in providing psychotherapy to juveniles and families."