Effective treatment of people who are at risk to sexually offend as well as those who have sexually offended is key to preventing future victimization and making society safer. ATSA supports the use of research-based and evidence-informed treatment known to reduce the likelihood of someone sexually offending. ATSA encourages those involved in addressing the problem of sexual abuse to adopt practices consistent with the best available evidence, and to adapt their approaches as new research and data emerge.
Major Practice Documents
The Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual abuse makes its guidelines freely available to all practicioners and the general public tol help practitioners protect their clients and the public against unethical, incompetent or unprofessional practices.
The ATSA Practice Guidelines for adults and for adolescents and the companion document, the ATSA Code of Ethics [1], are all made available free to download.
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Adults
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ATSA Practice Guidelines for the Assessment, Treatment, and Management of Male Adult Sexual Abusers [3] (2014)
Adolescents
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ATSA Practice Guidelines for Assessment, Treatment, and Intervention with Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior [4] (2017)
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Supplemental Documents: APPENDIX: 2017 ATSA Practice Guidelines for Assessment, Treatment, and Intervention with Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior [5]*
Special Populations
The empirical framework of these documents are based on the Risk-Need-Responsivity principles as follows:
- Risk: Treatment services are provided at a level of service and security that is commensurate with the client's assessed risk of recidivism.
- Need: Treatment inventions are focused primarily on research supported dynamic risk factors that are linked to recidivism. community.
- Responsivity: Treatment interventions are based on models with empirical support for change and are delivered in a manner that takes into account the client's individual factors (such as personal strengths, developmental stage, education and motivation.
*This appendix is intended to supplement the adolescent practice guidelines that ATSA published in 2017. The guidelines intentionally did not include references or a bibliography, but it is nonetheless useful to have a sense or overview of the research and theory that informed their development. This should provide better understanding of the recommendations and practice advice.
Major Practice Areas
Click here to visit the Adult Practice Section. [7]
Effective treatment of people who are at risk to sexually offend as well as those who have sexually offended is key to preventing future victimization and making society safer. ATSA supports the use of research-based and evidence-informed treatment known to reduce the likelihood of someone sexually offending. ATSA encourages those involved in addressing the problem of sexual abuse to adopt practices consistent with the best available evidence, and to adapt their approaches as new research and data emerge.
Click here to visit the Juvenile Practice Section. [8]
Juvenile practice refers to treatment, case management, supervision, program design and administration, and research pertaining to work with children who display sexual behavior problems and adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behavior, or other sexual behavior problems. The juvenile practice page provides information about and links to ATSA’s major activities and resources directed toward supporting effective juvenile practice.