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Recidivism Risk Assessment for Adult Sexual Offenders

  • Sexual Disorders (G Dwyer, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Sexual offending is a significant public health problem in the USA due to its prevalence and the substantial impact it has on victims, victims’ families, and the legal and mental health systems. The assessment of sexual offender recidivism risk is an important aspect of developing effective management strategies for sexual offenders in terms of placement, treatment, and other interventions. Researchers have developed numerous tools to aid in the assessment of sexual violence recidivism risk, including actuarial measures, structured professional judgment methods, and psychophysiologic assessment of sexual interests. The Static-99R and Sexual Violence Risk-20 are two instruments that have received substantial research attention for their ability to accurately compare offenders’ risk of recidivism to normative group data. Penile plethysmography and visual reaction time are used to evaluate subjects’ responses to sexual stimuli in an effort to characterize offenders’ sexual arousal and interest, respectively. Though current research has focused on risk assessment tools’ predictive utility, future research will need to examine the impact that actuarial and structured professional judgment tools have on reducing recidivism if they are to have relevance in the management of sexual offenders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis School of Medicine, 2230 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Brian J. Holoyda

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1438 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63104, USA

    William J. Newman

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Correspondence to Brian J. Holoyda.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Sexual Disorders

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Holoyda, B.J., Newman, W.J. Recidivism Risk Assessment for Adult Sexual Offenders. Curr Psychiatry Rep 18, 17 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0650-5

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