Te Piriti, located at Auckland Prison, is one of the Department’s two special treatment units for men who sexually offend against children. Its counterpart Kia Mārama operates at Rolleston Prison, near Christchurch. Both are run by the Department’s Psychological Service, using a nine-month intensive cognitive behaviour therapy programme based on best practice drawn from national and international research.
The Te Piriti programme has, additionally, incorporated Tikanga Māori cultural elements belonging to the indigenous people of New Zealand. The effectiveness of this programme was the subject of recent evaluation.
Māori men who completed the Te Piriti programme had a significantly lower sexual recidivism rate (4.41 percent) than Māori men who had completed the Kia Mārama programme (13.58 percent). An examination of other possible effects was made and no significant differences were found. Non-Māori men also had a lower rate of recidivisim (6.02 percent) than the control group.
“This research provides hard evidence that specialist interventions for Māori offenders can help reduce re-offending, and at the same time have no negative effect – indeed, can even have a positive effect – on non-Māori offenders,” says David Riley, Psychological Service Director.
The Te Piriti programme enables a Māori paradigm to stand in its own right as an appropriate intervention within a context of delivering Western psychological therapy, he says.
“Te Piriti’s tikanga approach is part of Corrections’ ongoing quest to reduce re-offending and improve its responsiveness to Māori. There will be opportunities to apply these findings in other areas of Corrections’ work.
“The research builds on earlier studies which have shown that Te Piriti and Kia Mārama are already very effective, reducing participants’ recidivism by some 50 percent. These latest findings show that further increases are possible.”
He points out that improved treatment results do not mean that it is possible to rehabilitate all child sex offenders, however.
“The rehabilitative programmes are a very effective means of helping these men to address their offending against children, understand the impact that it has on themselves and others, and learn strategies to keep themselves from re-offending. But it is important to bear in mind that no matter how good an intervention is, some participants will go on to re-offend.”