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: 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; Levenson, 2009), and that there is consequently a need for methods and tools that can be used to accurately assess the risk to public safety that sexual offenders pose. Indeed, estimates of risk for sex offenders are used in various community corrections, institutional corrections and civil commitment decision-making contexts. Thus, the scientific and theoretical underpinnings of risk assessment are a critical component of the successful management of adult sexual offenders (Hanson & Bourgon, in press; Mann, Hanson & Thortnon, 2010; Tabachnick & Klein, 2011). (