Qualitative Study on a Psychoeducation Group for Juvenile Sex Offenders

Qualitative Study on CRIAVS-LR (Resource Centre for Sex Offenders in Languedoc-Roussillon, France) Psychoeducation Group for Juvenile Sex Offenders

Some sexual violence is committed by minors but how to take care of them ? Despite heterogeneous profiles, some characteristics are common in these adolescents and can be used in psychoeducation group. CRIAVS-LR team has therefore decided to create a psychoeducation group on emotional and sexual life specific for this population of young adult/adolescents in order to improve their skills and find alternative solutions to violence, particularly in the area of sexual violence The qualitative aspect of this study would make it possible to provide data in this still little explored field, to try to understand the experience of the young people participating in this group and to improve its structure and content so that it reaches best its goals.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Sex Offense
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: semi-structured qualitative interviews

Detailed Description

In France, 25% of perpetrators of sexual offenses are minors. Faced with this increasingly present problem in our society, the answer seems to be more on the side of education and care. However, this new problem confronts us with the limits of our care and forces us to reconsider the organization of care. Indeed, to date, there is no specific support for juvenile sex offenders. Little research exists on the subject because of the many difficulties in setting up this type of study: low power, problem of definition, variables that are difficult to compare, few therapists specialized in this field... In fact, studies must continue to demonstrate the effectiveness of psychoeducational treatment. Although there is no consensus on the profiles of juvenile sex offenders in the literature, there are common characteristics among these individuals. Indeed, the lack of social skills, relationship difficulties, empathy, self-esteem, sex education, impulse control and therefore self-control are issues that can be worked on by psychoeducation.

CRIAVS-LR's team have therefore decided to create a specific psychoeducation group for minors and young adults who are perpetrators of sexual violence. The objective is to improve their skills of knowing, knowing how to be and knowing how to do in the areas of affective and sexual interpersonal relationships and thus find alternative solutions to violence, particularly sexual violence. The qualitative aspect of this study would make it possible to provide data in this still little explored field, to try to understand the experience of the young people participating in this group and to improve its structure and content so that it reaches best its goals.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 20

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: magali teillard, psychologist; Phone Number: 33 0467338577; Email: m-teillard_dirat@chu-montpellier.fr
• Study Contact Backup: Name: celine BAIS, Ph; Phone Number: 33 0467338677; Email: c-bais@chu-montpellier.fr

Study Locations

• France
  • Montpellier, France, 34295
    • Recruiting
    • UH MONTPELLIER - La Colombiere CRIAVS
    • Contact: Celine BAIS, PhD; Phone Number: 33 0467338577; Email: c-bais@chu-montpellier.fr

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Juvenile sex offenders

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• patient aged 14 to 20
• commit a sexual offense
• takes part to CRIAVS-LR psychoeducation group

Exclusion Criteria:

• severe intellectual disability, decompensated psychiatric disease
• Illiterate or unable to understand the purpose and methodology of the study
• Patient not affiliated to a French social security scheme or not a beneficiary of such a scheme
• Person unable to give consent
• Refusal of consent after information
• Adult protected by law (guardianship, curatorship)
• Person under psychiatric care
• Person participating in another research project with an exclusion period still in progress,

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort

Intervention / Treatment

juvenile sex offender psychoeducation group; The psychoeducation group consists of 10 sessions of approximately 1.5 hours each, once a week or every two weeks depending on the availability of the therapists. Among the sessions, 9 correspond to a specific theme: reminder of the law and violence, sexism, consent, control, social pressure, self-control, empathy, seduction and romantic relationships, sex under the influence. The last session is devoted to a resumption of all the themes previously discussed. Semi-structured qualitative interviews addressing their feelings regarding the psychoeducation group, what they learned from it, what they had difficulty with.

Other: semi-structured qualitative interviews; During the interview, a list of semi-open questions will be asked : What were your expectations/state of mind before the group?; How would you describe your experience overall?; If you had to describe the group how would you do it?; Between two group sessions, how did it go for you?; What do you think of the group ultimately? Interviews will be carried out until data saturation. Collection of socio-demographic data (age), medical history and criminal history in the patient's file

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The feelings of patients who participated on a psychoeducation group	One Guided Interview : The analysis of the interviews uses a phenomenological method aimed at bringing out data from the lived experience collected in the verbatims, each representing an aspect of the phenomenon studied. The raw data will be prepared in a word document. After a division into units of meaning and thematization by an inductive coding procedure using classificatory logic, the analysis consists of identifying the relevant elements in relation to the research question and in particular in relation to the chosen indicators. These different indicators will constitute an a priori analysis grid. They will be distributed in the different "boxes" previously established concerning the chosen indicators. Apart from these a priori indicators, concepts not planned in advance will be reported Patient's expectations before the group, description of the lived experience, emotions felt between two sessions, group description, patient's feed back after their participation.	At the end of the 10 sessions (week 10) of the psychoeducation group

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Socio-demographic data	age and criminal records	At the end of the 10 sessions (week 10) of the psychoeducation group

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Montpellier
• Investigators: Study Director: celine BAIS, Ph, University Hospital, Montpellier

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 29, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 10, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): October 25, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 25, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 20, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: sexual violence; psychoeducation; support group; paraphilia; juvenile sex offenders; pedophilic interest
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-MTP_2023_09_202301455

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No