Title: Chapter 6: Sex Offender Risk Assessment | Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking
Headings: Chapter 6: Sex Offender Risk Assessment
Chapter 6: Sex Offender Risk Assessment
by Kevin Baldwin, Ph.D.
Findings
Introduction
Review of Research
Empirical research has yet to identify a single "best" risk assessment instrument.
Future Directions
Summary
Notes
References

Content: The ability to accurately assess the likelihood of future violent acts — and future criminal behavior more generally — is important to clinicians, policymakers and the public alike. In this context, risk assessment typically involves arriving at an estimate of the likelihood that an offender will recidivate (that is, revert to illegal behavior) after the individual experiences legal consequences or intervention for a prior criminal act. ( For more information on "Adult Sex Offender Recidivism," see Chapter 5 in the Adult section.) Risk assessment serves many purposes throughout the adjudication process. It is often undertaken for dispositional purposes to help determine, for example, an appropriate sentence or custody level or the conditions of community supervision. In these situations, decisions are often predicated, at least in part, on the assessed likelihood of recidivism, with resources being allocated accordingly to promote community safety (Kingston et al., 2008). Research has suggested that offenders convicted of sexual offenses have received more attention from policymakers than any other category of offenders over the past 25 years (Ackerman et al., 2011; Hanson & Bourgon, in press;