NCJ Number
190207
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 490-521
Date Published
August 2001
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study compared five actuarial instruments and one guided clinical instrument designed to assess risk for recidivism for adult sex offenders.
Abstract
This study was conducted to evaluate the performances of six instruments in predicting recidivism in a sample of adult male sex offenders in a prison-based treatment program between June 1989 and June 1996. The Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG) contains 12 items, including elementary school adjustment, marital status, and age at index offense. The Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG) is a modification of VRAG, with 10 common items, and 4 additional items. The Rapid Risk Assessment of Sexual Offense Recidivism (RRASOR) has four items, including number of prior sexual offense convictions, age upon release from prison, any male victims, and any unrelated victims. Static-99 which predicted general, serious, and sexual recidivism has 10 items, including the 4 RRASOR items and additional items such as prior sentencing dates and any stranger victims. The Minnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool-Revised (MnSOST-R) has 16 items, 12 pertaining to historical information and 4 pertaining to institutional information. The Multifactorial Assessment of Sex Offender Risk for Recidivism (MASORR) provides a global rating of pretreatment risk. Results show that the VRAG, SORAG, RRASOR and Static-99 predicted general recidivism, serious (violent and sexual) recidivism, and sexual recidivism. The MnSOST-R and MASORR predicted general recidivism but did not significantly predict serious or sexual recidivism. This study also examined the predictive ability of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). On its own, the PCL-R predicted general and serious recidivism but not sexual recidivism. The results supported the utility of an actuarial approach to risk assessment of sex offenders. 5 tables, 1 note, 43 references