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Functional Family Therapy (FFT) for post-release youth convicted of a sex offense

Juvenile Justice
  Literature review updated July 2019.

This analysis compares Functional Family Therapy (FFT) to treatment as usual for youth released from juvenile rehabilitation facilities who have committed sexual offenses. FFT is a structured family-based intervention that uses a multi-step approach to enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors in the family. The five major components of FFT include 1) engagement, 2) motivation, 3) identifying patterns of interaction within the family, 4) behavior change, and 5) generalizing positive interactions to new situations. FFT sessions are conducted primarily in the home of the participant’s family. FFT was not modified or adapted to address the specific needs of youth who have committed sexual offenses.

All participants were youth convicted of sex offenses being released from juvenile rehabilitation facilities after serving their sentence. FFT participants received 12-16 therapy sessions over 11 months, on average. Youth in the comparison group received treatment as usual for juvenile sex offenders (TAU-JSO), which consisted of weekly or bi-weekly individual and/or group therapy sessions over 22 months. In the included study, 28% of participants were youth of color and 3% were female. Youth were classified as low or moderate risk per scores on a validated recidivism risk instrument.

Evaluations of FFT for court-involved and post-release youth convicted of non-sexual offenses are excluded from this analysis and analyzed separately.

Key Terms

Court-involved youth: Youth who are processed through the juvenile justice system but who are not ordered to a period of confinement in a residential or correctional facility. This includes populations of arrested youth, diverted youth, charged youth, adjudicated youth, and youth on probation or formal supervision.

Youth in state institutions: Youth who are confined in a residential or correctional facility when they participate in the program.

Youth post-release: Youth who are returning to the community following a period of confinement in a residential or correctional facility and who participate in the program after release to the community.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Crime
Any criminal conviction according to court records, sometimes measured through charges, arrests, incarceration, or self-report.
 15 1 41 0.588 0.394 16 0.588 0.136
Sex offense
Arrests, charges, convictions, or incarcerations for a sex offense.
 15 1 41 0.000 0.383 16 0.000 1.000

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Erickson, C.J. (2008). The effectiveness of functional family therapy in the treatment of juvenile sexual offenders. Dissertation Abstracts International, 69-10 (B), 6409, 208.