NCJ Number
215729
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2006 Pages: 257-272
Date Published
July 2006
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes the various risk factors and risk assessments currently used with sex offenders in the United Kingdom.
Abstract
Generally, risk assessments for sex offenders take into account three basic factors when attempting to predict the likelihood of future sexual offending: (1) historical factors about the offender and their past criminal behavior; (2) dynamic factors that can be modified by external influences, such as deviant sexual interests and pro-offending attitudes; and (3) contextual factors that may motivate offending behavior, such as a lack of social support or feelings of isolation. Two types of risk assessments are generally employed with sex offenders: clinical assessments, which involve clinician judgments, and actuarial assessments, which attempt to identify the presence of the various historical, dynamic, and contextual risk factors outside of a full clinical assessment. Research on both the strengths and limitations of actuarial assessment instruments is reviewed; strengths include their objective nature while limitations include problems with measuring offender change over time due to the exclusion of many dynamic risk factors. The response to this limitation has been a concerted effort to include dynamic risk factors in actuarial assessments and there is some research showing the effectiveness of this strategy. Next, the authors consider the risk assessments used in UK prisons and probation settings, which primarily involves the use of the joint Prison-Probation Offender Assessment System (OASys), a generic assessment instrument developed by the Home Office in 1999. The OASys includes dynamic risk factors in an effort to overcome the limitations of previous assessments and indications thus far are that the OASys appears to have benefits over other assessments of sex offender recidivism risk. Tables, references