Sex Offender Assessment When Requested Can t do an SO assessment unless they have been convicted Pre sentencing Pre treatment Pre trial o Tricky because you can t do an SO for someone who hasn t been convicted o Have to tell attorney the limits of what you can do Question is usually whether or not they will reoffend o Can t say yes or no o Can talk about the degree of risk SORB Civil commitment o SORB Sex Offender Registry Board 3 different levels 3 highest 1 lowest Can petition to get your level lowered once assigned and then once every 3 years Your level is determined based on the individual s risk o SO Civil Commitment law that says after you ve been committed for a sex offense at the time that you have completed your sentence you can be held indefinitely for treatment purposes until you are no longer considered sexually dangerous 15 16 states have it including MA Assistant District Attorney requests it usually for everybody Can be held from a day to the rest of your life Criteria is a diagnosis mental disorder that puts you at a particularly high risk Pedophilia Sexual disorder NOS not otherwise specified o Doesn t meet diagnostic criteria but clearly has a problem Antisocial Multiple people evaluate the individual Experts you hire Experts the state hires 3 of those civilly committed have been released Key component What is the risk of reoffending Research Old research Offender profiles o Didn t work Current research o Typologies Didn t address risk Complex clustering of individuals not user friendly Interesting but wasn t useful in doing assessments o Empirically supported risk factors Where the bulk of offender research has been in the last decade Longitudinal study Followed people who had committed a sex offender crime and had a lot of information on the individuals and then tracked the individuals and saw what risk factors were correlated with reoffending Examples age criminal record victim characteristics Limitation reoffending looked at re arrests o Only counted if you got caught Key Issues to Assess Look at o General psychological issues o Psychopathy Antisocial personality o Deviant Sexual Interests o Empirically supported risk factors For treatment reasons and recidivism rates Psychological Issues Associated with Risk Negative mood o Depression anxiety etc Anger Hostility o Trait anger versus state anger Trait is higher risk Intimacy deficits o Need self report for it o Marriage like relationship o Being in one AND having been in one means a lower risk Has to do with capacity for age appropriate consensual intimacy General and sexual self regulation o The degree to which you can control your behavior o Not act on sexual urges Substance abuse o Make it easier to offend o Past and current substance abuse Psychopathy antisocial characteristics Deviant sexual interests o Interest in pre pubescent individuals o Those sexually aroused by aggression Non consensual Violent Life stability o Employment living situation etc Denial is not associated with reoffending Sexual Interests Penile Plethysmograph PPG o Have the individual sit and have auditory stimuli Always includes a normal consensual encounter Include ones to look out for underage victim non consensual etc o Have the individual put a band on their penis that measures volume change connected to a computer that creates a graph o Measuring physical arousal o Pros hard to fake o Cons horribly uncomfortable for the person to take distract themselves from the script in order to not get aroused by the incriminating story Visual Response Time VRT o Abel Assessment for Sexual Interest AASI Measure how long it takes you to go from 1 image to the next Look at arousing images longer 160 slides 1st round just measures the time 2nd round asks the person how arousing they find the person Pros distinguishes between pre and post pubescent interest can use it with women have an adolescent version Cons High rate of false positives doesn t distinguish between adolescent and adult interest Can be administered to anyone not only SO s Used to see what needs to happen in treatment Empirically strong and don t have a lot of theory to them Hold up well to the Daubert Standard Many courts require the STATIC Actuarial Assessments RRASOR Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense Recidivism STATIC 99 STATIC 2002R o Expanded RRASOR what the RRASOR became o Developed in 99 and revised in 2002 o Can only be conducted for men o All you need to do a STATIC or RRASOR is a description of the individual s offense and a Criminal Offense Record Information CORI o Designed in a way that the information you got is from an official record o Uses static risk facts o Relative Risk whether or not you are likely to offend in comparison to the average sex offender who received the same score o Actual Test Age at Release Young high Old low score Persistence of Sexual Offending Prior Sentencing Occasions for Sexual Offenses Any Juvenile Arrest for a Sexual Offence and Convicted as an Adult for a Separate Sexual Offence Rate of Sexual Offending Deviant Sexual Interests Any Sentencing Occasion for Non contact Sex Offenses Any Male Victim No 0 Yes 1 Young Unrelated Victims Relationship to Victim Any Unrelated Victim Any Stranger as a Victim General Criminality Way to remember the risks of a sex offender Re offending post conviction Any Prior Involvement with the CJ System Prior Sentencing Occasions for Anything Any Community Supervision Violation Years Free Prior to Index Sex Offence Any Prior Non sexual Violence Sentencing Occasion Stable 2007 o Mostly used for treatment o Stable dynamic risk factors Negative mood self regulation sexual and general impulse control etc o Does require self report and an assessment Acute 2007 o Acute dynamic risk factors Actively using substances peer relationships etc MnSOST R Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool Revised o Targeted at people who are pre released