|  Thursday, June 25, 1998. VICTORIA A WORLD LEADER IN WORKING WITH TEEN SEX OFFENDERS
Victoria’s innovative program of working with adolescent sex offenders is a world leader in getting teenagers to understand the consequences of their actions and change their behaviour, the Youth & Community Services Minister, Dr Denis Napthine said today.
Launching an evaluation report into the Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality (MAPPS) and a literature review of male adolescent sex offending and treatment programs from around the world, Dr Napthine said Victoria’s program was achieving significant results.
Of the 138 young offenders who have been to court and attended the juvenile justice treatment program over almost five years, 95 per cent have had no further sexual offences recorded.
“The benefits of MAPPS are even more remarkable when you compare young offenders who have completed the program with those who have not,” Dr Napthine said.
“Young offenders who have completed MAPPS are eight times less likely to reoffend sexually, six times less likely to reoffend non-sexually, and twice as likely to not reoffend at all.
“The MAPPS approach of requiring the young people to take responsibility for their offending, and to acknowledge the impact on their victims, is clearly getting these clients to look at a range of issues.
“As well as dramatically reducing their likelihood to commit further sexual offences, the program is clearly also helping these young people take stock of their lives and look towards becoming useful members of the community.”
Dr Napthine said part of the literature review was the development of a best-practice model based on programs from around the world.
“The comparison of MAPPS with this model found that it either matched or bettered most components, and is at the leading edge of programs around the world in the effective treatment of adolescent sex offenders,” he said.
Dr Napthine said MAPPS began in 1993 as a response to the growing recognition of the nature of the problem - that sexual offending in adolescence is not a developmental stage that teenagers ‘grow out of” - but is more likely to become chronic and ingrained, with multiple victims over many years.
“Early intervention is important to prevent further sexual abuse and the resulting devastating harm to victims and the community,” he said....../2
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“Despite the abhorrence of sex offenders by many people and the desire to ‘lock them up and throw away the key’, this is not the answer.
“The problem has to be treated, and as soon as possible. MAPPS does this with adolescent sex offenders, and the results speak for themselves.”
The MAPPS program costs about $250,000 per year to run. Dr Napthine said the Victorian Government also funds other young sex offender programs.
“These programs all play a major role in assessing and treating young people with sex offending behaviour, and help to break the cycle before it has a chance to become entrenched,” Dr Napthine said.
“The evaluation has confirmed that Victoria is heading in the right direction in addressing this major social and community problem.”
NOTE: Time & venue of Dr Napthine’s launch: - 11am today (Thursday), Administrative Building foyer, Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre, 900 Park St. Parkville.
Media inquiries:
Graeme Walker, Department of Human Services, Media Unit (03) 9616 7296.
Anne Stanford, Press Secretary (03) 9651 5799.
Internet: http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/hs.html
(F:press/Justice/gw/22.6.98) Media Release Attachment - JUSTICE#.DOC [Word, 55296 Bytes]
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