The diagnostic reliability of sexual sadism.

Previous studies have reported low diagnostic agreement on the paraphilias, especially sexual sadism. In the present study, 34 evaluators throughout the United States reviewed summaries of 12 committed sex offenders. The evaluators agreed more than 90% of the time on whether offenders met criteria for any paraphilia in general and sexual sadism in particular.

Diagnostic and risk profiles of men detained under Wisconsin's sexually violent person law.

Previous studies described the characteristics of individuals committed under sexual offender civil commitment laws in Arizona, Florida, and Washington. This study describes the diagnostic and risk profiles of 331 sexual offenders held under Wisconsin's sexual offender statute and compares them to the people held in those other states. Persons detained under Wisconsin's law substantially differ from those in the other states.

Effectiveness of sex offender treatment for psychopathic sexual offenders.

Meta-analyses have suggested that sexual offender treatment (SOT) completion is associated with lowered sexual recidivism rates for convicted sexual offenders. The paucity of properly designed studies allows for the alternative explanation of less recidivism among treated samples as reflecting that lower risk offenders disproportionately self-select into treatment. A test of the "self-selection explanation" can occur by investigating treatment effect on known high-risk offenders.

What do we know about the effect of aging on recidivism risk for sexual offenders?

Meta-analytic and multiple sample study findings indicate there is an overall inverse relationship between sexual offenders' age at the time of their release from incarceration and their sexual recidivism risk (Hanson, 2002; Hanson & Bussière, 1998). Very recent studies, however, document limits to the generalizability of that finding. This article attempts to integrate the new empirical results into a coherent picture concerning the relationship between aging and recidivism risk for sexual offenders.

Toward a multidimensional model for sexual recidivism risk.

The paradigm underlying current sexual offender recidivism risk assessment procedures conceptualizes such risk in a linear fashion, ranging on a single continuum from 0% to 100%. Each risk and protective characteristic thought of relevance in an evaluation is used as an indicator of increased or decreased risk, respectively, along that same continuum. This conceptualization of risk was useful as a starting place for the application of empirically supported risk and protective factors.

Stability of the interpretative risk percentages for the RRASOR and Static-99.

Current procedures to estimate sex offender recidivism risk typically involve actuarial instruments, either alone or in combination with adjustments based on other considerations. Two of the most commonly employed actuarial instruments for the assessment of sexual recidivism risk are the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offender Recidivism (RRASOR; R. K.