Clinician's perceptions of indicators of amenability to sex offender-specific treatment in juveniles.

Identifying and understanding the factors that predict treatment success is central to legal and clinical decision making about juveniles who commit sexual offenses. The current study surveyed 158 treatment providers who work with juvenile sexual offenders to explore empirically the construct of amenability as it relates to juvenile sex offender-specific treatment (SOST). Youths' unwillingness to alter deviant sexual interest/attitudes and unsupportive parenting were rated as strong indicators of poor SOST amenability, whereas the youths' motivation for change and belief in the efficacy of treatment, strong social support and positive attachments, and resilient personality traits were rated as strong indicators of good SOST amenability. Items distinctly rated as indicators of either poor or good treatment amenability (N = 48) were thematically grouped into internally consistent scales (α's ranging from .75-.87) reflecting several possible dimensions of amenability.