Overview

What level of accuracy does the SAPROF-SO provide for predicting recidivism as compared to other, validated assessments?

Summary

The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors against Sexual Offending (SAPROF-SO)  is a 14-item instrument designed to evaluate protective factors across three core domains: Resilience, Adaptive Sexuality, and Prosocial Connection & Reward. The primary aims of the current study by Carr et al. (2025) were to build upon the initial validation of this instrument by: 

1. Establishing the SAPROF-SO’s ability to predict success on supervised release in a high-risk sample of civilly committed men in the United States. 

2. Examining its incremental predictive validity over and above the widely used Static-99R. 

3. Determining the specific predictive utility of the individual SAPROF-SO subscales. 

Method:  The study sample consisted of 170 adult males 

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Overview

Does the Static-99R or the MnSOST-R accurately predict recidivism in individuals with Intellectual Disabilities or Borderline Intellectual Functioning?

Summary

Nearly 20% of all incarcerated offenders have been identified as having an intellectual disability (IDD) or borderline intellectual functioning (BIF). 

Despite this relatively high number of individuals with IDD who are incarcerated, there is limited research on the effectiveness of actuarial risk assessments on this population.

This study aimed to compare the predictive accuracy of the Static-99, Static -99R and the MnSOST-R for individuals

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Overview

There is a prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) cases, and, at present, there is no fully validated risk assessment measure for these cases. In this study summary we’ll look at the Static-99R and CPORT for these purposes.

Summary

Courts are looking for a risk assessment and all an evaluator can truly provide is the goodness of fit of the client to the type of CSAM offenders known in the research literature and those estimates of recidivism.

CPORT is the only static risk measure specifically developed for use with these cases.

While it is a helpful tool, it continues to require validation studies and often, in the United States, evaluators are not provided all of the forensic materials necessary to use the full measure.

Therefore, studies assessing the usefulness of other risk assessment measures for CSAM cases can be helpful.

Details of the Static-99R CPORT Study

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Overview

Research on recidivism tools for women lags significantly behind that on men. Additionally, what little research there is on the risk assessment of women is often limited and does not specifically address mental health issues.

Summary

This study specifically looked at 525 German women who were admitted to a German Psychiatric Hospital at the request of the courts.

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Overview

Analysis of a meta-study trying to validate the forensic use of the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT) for actuarial CSAM risk assessment.

Summary

Those in the field know the criminal justice system prefers to have an actuarial risk assessment measure to aide in decisions for sentencing, treatment needs, etc.

There are long standing and validated risk assessment measures for contact sexual offenses. However, there are no validated risk assessment measures for non-contact, Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) offenders.

CPORT and Risk Assessment

The CPORT was created several years ago by Dr. Michael Seto and colleagues. However, this measure is not without its difficulties. The authors note in the manual that it should not be used as a risk assessment measure.

Despite this statement, many evaluators are using the CPORT as a risk assessment tool.

The Study

An article published this year (2023)

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The post Should the CPORT Be Used for CSAM Risk Assessment? first appeared on Mitigation Aide.

Overview

It has been known for quite some time that there are two categories of CSAM offenders, internet-only and mixed offenders.

Summary

CSAM offenders have no history of a contact sexual offense. Mixed offenders are, generally, defined as a CSAM offense with a historical or concurrent contact sexual offense. For years, mixed offenders were all lumped into one group and were not studied on their own to determine if they were a homogeneous group.

The Study: Mixed Offenders

In a study published in 2022, Babchishin, et. al., looked further into the issue. Specifically looking at whether or not the order in which a contact offense occurred in relation to the CSAM offense has any impact on the risk of recidivism.

The original data sample for this study was comprised of 387 Canadian men.

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Overview

Beyond the standard actuarial testing, can these other studies help predict recidivism? How do these scores affect treatment needs?

Summary

When we talk about recidivism, we are usually talking about actuarial measures such as the Static-99R or the Stable or Acute 2007. This research article assesses whether or not there are other measures that can predict recidivism.

Predict Recidivism and Provide Trauma Informed Care

As the field slowly moves toward trauma informed care, the authors studied the association between recidivism and scoring on the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale.

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The post Can ACE or LSI Scores Predict Recidivism? first appeared on Mitigation Aide.

Overview

What are the findings of the multi-year, state government-funded report of the PA Task Force on Child Pornography? And what are its recommendations?

Summary

In 2021 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania passed ACT 53 which established the Task Force on Child Pornography.

It directed the task force to “conduct a review to ascertain any inadequacies relating to the offense of child pornography in 18 PA CS 6312.

The report was finished and published in September of 2022.

What was the Focus of the Report of the PA Task Force on Child Pornography?

The report narrowed in on a number of issues related to CSAM offenses.

It reviewed the demographics of the individuals committing these crimes, assessed the newest research on recidivism, looked at SOAB assessments and surveyed law enforcement and prosecutors.

Who was included in the Report of the PA Task Force on Child Pornography?

Between 2014 and October of 2021, there were 2989 cases involving CSAM offenses with an average of 385 cases per year.

The majority of cases

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The post Summary of the Report of the PA Task Force on Child Pornography first appeared on Mitigation Aide.

Overview

Using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale and two risk assessment measures to evaluate likelihood of treatment completion and reduce recidivism with trauma informed care.

Summary

There is a growing trend in treating sexual offenders from a lens of trauma informed care. 

Trauma informed care is a significant break from the traditional manner sex offender treatment has previously been delivered.

As with any culture shift, there are many skeptics. This research article seeks to provide evidence to support the trauma informed care paradigm.  

The Study Evaluating Efficacy of Trauma Informed Care

The current study used the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scale as a measure of trauma and assessed the relationship between ACE scores, recidivism and treatment completion. 

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Did you arrive here looking for information about childhood trauma, or adverse childhood experiences? Dr. Weeks offers a free, scientifically-validated, anonymous assessment on her personal blog. Take the Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire.

The post Can Trauma Informed Treatment Affect Recidivism? first appeared on Mitigation Aide.

Overview

A look at the data and results of an August 2022 study of 141 sexual offenders. The study further emphasizes the recidivism prediction abilities of the CPORT.

Summary

Evaluators conducting evaluations and risk assessments CSAM offenders do not have a validated actuarial risk assessment measure for this population. For contact offenses, there are several, with the Static-99R being the most widely used.

To combat this, Seto and colleagues created the CPORT. 

However, the CPORT authors provide the following provisos:

• It should not be used with more than 1 missing data point
• Until it has been validated more widely, should not be used as a measure to predict recidivism

The CPORT Validation Study

This study, published in August of 2022, sought to directly replicate the original CPORT validation study with a population of individuals from Scotland. They were charged with offenses related to images of child sexual abuse.

The authors were able to use data for 141 individuals with a fixed follow up period to measure recidivism of 5 years.

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The post Does the CPORT Predict Risk in a Scottish Population? first appeared on Mitigation Aide.