Risk Assessment

NY: After 25 Years, It Is Past Time To Reform New York’s Sex Offender Risk Assessment System: Part II

·February 10, 2021
·9 Comments

[law.com - 2/9/21] In Part 1 of this article, I outlined what I believe are the significant flaws in the Risk Assessment Instrument (the RAI) New York courts are required…

National

NY: After 25 Years, It Is Past Time To Reform New York’s Sex Offender Risk Assessment System: Part I

·January 6, 2021
·8 Comments

[law.com - 1/5/21] In this article, the author outlines the significant flaws of the sex offender risk assessment instrument. A second article to be published later will explain why these…

General News

Kat’s Blog: Future Risk

·November 15, 2019
·12 Comments

We hear a lot of talk about the “unfairness” of the registry, how everyone on it is “treated the same” no matter what their offense. Lumping all registrants under the…

National

CT: Sentencing Commission Makes Last-Minute Plea To Senate

·May 27, 2019
·2 Comments

With less than two weeks to the end of the legislative session, the state Sentencing Commission is asking Senate leaders to bring two potentially controversial proposals to a vote. SB…

General News

Registration Influenced by Racial Bias, Ohio Study Claims

·August 17, 2018
·6 Comments

The classification of sex offenders based on the risks they pose to the community following their release from prison is subject to racial bias, according to a study published in…

National

Title: Evaluation of the Implementation of the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS) [paper on assessing risk]

·July 5, 2018
·4 Comments

[nij.gov - 5/2018] This report that details findings from a study designed to follow sex offenders on probation over time in two geographically diverse settings to assess recidivism and the…

National

NJ: How N.J. determines which sex offenders are dangerous, explained

·March 31, 2018
·6 Comments

Keeping track of New Jersey’s registered sex offenders falls to Megan’s Law units in all 21 counties. That includes classifying offenders based on the potential danger they pose to the…

National

How ‘Pseudo-Science’ Turns Sex Offenders into Permanent Outlaws

·January 25, 2018
·11 Comments

[thecrimereport.org] A New York Appeals court has rejected the notion that risk prediction under the state’s Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) should have a scientific basis. According to the July…

National

NY: SORA – The human cost of junk science

·November 26, 2016
·3 Comments

Of the nearly 40,000 persons on New York’s sex offender registry, 9,679 are displayed on its public website as Level 3, a warning that he or she presents the maximum…

California

The Field Validity of Static-99/R Sex Offender Risk Assessment Tool in California

·April 14, 2014
·11 Comments

Policies that differentially apply to sexual offenders at different risk levels require defensible procedures for classifying offenders into risk categories. The current study examines the reliability and validity of Static-99…

General News

Putting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV

·January 13, 2014
·7 Comments

As the developers of actuarial instruments such as the Static-99R acknowledge that their original norms inflated the risk of re-offense for sex offenders, a brand-new method is cropping up to…

National

Static-99 developers embrace redemption – Sex offender risk plummets over time in community, new study reports

·November 6, 2013
·16 Comments

And now -- drum roll -- the authors of the most widely used actuarial tool for assessing sex offender recidivism are conceding that even sex offenders cross a "redemption threshold"…