Every year in the world 150 millions of children are sexually abused (Report ONU 2006); Italy is among the first eight countries in number of disappeared or sexually abused children. About one out of three convicted child abusers relapses within ten years after the release.

Many Anglo-Saxon prisons implement cognitive-behavioural intervention protocols aimed to reduce recidivism risk by using cognitive restructuring, working upon denial, empathy training, social skills training and relapse prevention. A 25 years follow-up study about the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural therapy demonstrated the validity of these protocols.

Unfortunately, up to now in Italy the vast majority of convicted sexual abusers doesn’t receive any specific treatment. In Prato prison, in Tuscany, we recently activated a pilot program of group cognitive-behavioural therapy.

A first sample of 6 subjects (43-61 years old) during 6 months attended 120 therapy hours, in which the above described protocol was performed. Some questionnaires (MMPI-2 and others) were administered as pre- and post-test.

Post-test preliminary results showed a marked reduction of lie scales and all group therapy participants cooperated actively with the therapists, each one producing a relapse prevention manual, that they’ll be able to use after the release.

The outcome of the protocol was encouraging, even if we cannot evaluate the effects on the recidivism rate, since the program was implemented only a year ago. Our group intends to perform in the future a follow-up study on recidivism and program efficacy.