Using a Developmental Lens to Promote Prosocial Skills in Adolescent Clients
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The most effective approaches to understanding, assessing, and treating juveniles who have sexually offended are those that account for adolescent development. Practicing with a “developmental lens” can help ensure that our methods result in prosocial behaviors and better lives. This training is designed to help attendees set developmentally appropriate treatment goals and promote teens’ ability to make better decisions and take greater responsibility for their lives.
Dr. Ralph begins the training by comparing historical treatment approaches and offers insights into what we know about adolescent development, for example, how testosterone output corresponds to changes in criminal behavior. He further explores how these factors, along with what we now know about brain plasticity, call for a different response to adolescent crime than is being offered by the current legal system.
Dr. Ralph next explores the characteristics of effective programs; in particular, the forms of therapeutic counseling that support problem-solving skill-building and prosocial approaches to daily life. He discusses the skills used by effective probation officers as well as counselors and examines specific approaches, such as Aggression Replacement Training (ART) and methods from Dr. Ralph’s “Being a Pro” workbook and related research and theory publications. Finally, he examines specific guidelines from “Prosocial Passages,” a work in development.
Key topics discussed include:
- Evidence-based treatment for adolescents who have sexually offended
- Developmentally appropriate treatment methods and counseling skills
- Neurologically informed approaches to assessment and treatment
- Recidivism rate variations between juveniles and adults
- Juvenile justice systems and prosocial maturation
- Interaction of prosocial development and comorbidity
1) Describe relevant models of child and adolescent development.
2) Critique historical approaches to treating juveniles who have sexually offended.
3) Describe three treatment methods that are developmentally related.
4) Explain two characteristics of effective treatment programs.
Audience
This training is designed for professionals working with adolescents who have perpetrated sexual abuse. Professionals who will benefit from this training include social workers, psychologists, clinical counselors, juvenile justice personnel, and probation officers.
Content Level
Disclosure
Continuing Education Approval
American Psychological Association (APA)
Safer Society Foundation, Inc. is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Safer Society Foundation, Inc. maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Who's Presenting
Norbert Ralph, PhD, MPH
Dr. Ralph is a clinical psychologist, psychiatric epidemiologist, and neuropsychologist. He previously served as Director of Behavioral Pediatrics at UC Davis, where he provided neuropsychological assessment and treatment for youth with ADHD. He also served as a volunteer Associate Clinical Professor in Family Practice at UC Davis and was formerly a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.
For 15 years, Dr. Ralph served as Alienist Panel Coordinator for the City and County of San Francisco. In that role, he coordinated psychological testing for the juvenile court. Upon leaving that position, he received the Public Health Hero Award from San Francisco in recognition of his years of service, advocacy for youth, direct clinical service at Juvenile Hall during the pandemic, innovation and use of evidence-based methods, and technological innovations.
Dr. Ralph is the author of more than 50 articles, book chapters, books, and blogs. He is also a 2026 faculty member for the Judicial Council of California, and a member of the HUB youth advisory group based in South Africa. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse (ATSA). He serves as Co-Chair of the ATSA Juvenile Committee and as the Adolescent Representative on the California Sex Offender Management Board, where he contributed to the 2022 Youth Guidelines.