Globally, the statistics on sexual recidivism serve as an important indicator of the effectiveness of mental health policies for treating the sex offenders. Concerning the management of sex offenders, the mental health policies and the legislations enacted to aid and guide these policies are aimed at reducing sexual recidivism through reliable and scientifically proven therapeutic interventions. An analysis of the sexual recidivism outcome in the USA, UK and European regions will establish a comparative framework for assessing and redesigning the mental health policy initiatives and implementations in India. The data derived through a systematic search on various journal databases, bibliographic databases, published and unpublished articles and reports, web sources, and other online databases has been used for analyzing the impact and outcomes of the mental health policies implemented across the reference regions viz., the USA, UK, Europe and India. The analysis of the data revealed that the sexual recidivism rates in India is higher than that of those in the UK and various European countries and the effectiveness of the sex offender treatment programs in India is significantly lower compared to those observed in the UK and the USA. Across all the reference regions considered in this study, including India, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has emerged as a particularly effective treatment model. The situation regarding sexual offenses and the management of offenders in India presents several challenges that need to be addressed to improve public safety and support rehabilitation efforts. India’s National Sex Offenders Registry is a crucial tool for tracking individuals convicted of sexual crimes, but the absence of recidivism data limits the ability to understand the effectiveness of current interventions and the risk factors associated with reoffending.
Govindarajan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.