The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR): preliminary psychometric data.

The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR) is an empirically guided checklist designed to assist clinicians to estimate the short-term risk of a sexual reoffense for youth aged 12-18 years of age. The ERASOR provides objective coding instructions for 25 risk factors (16 dynamic and 9 static). To investigate the psychometric properties, risk ratings were collected from 28 clinicians who evaluated 136 adolescent males (aged 12-18 years) following comprehensive, clinical assessments.

The importance of offense characteristics, victimization history, hostility, and social desirability in assessing empathy of male adolescent sex offenders.

Empathy has been a focus of work with sex offenders; however, there are a limited number of studies supporting this as a deficit. The study investigated the reliability and validity of 3 scales of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI)--Empathic Concern [EC], Perspective-Taking [PT], and Personal Distress [PD]--within a clinical sample. These scales were also used to examine the differences in empathy among groups of sex offenders.

Sexual abuse histories of adolescent male sex offenders: differences on the basis of the age and gender of their victims.

Childhood sexual abuse has often been implicated in the etiology of adolescent sex offending behavior. Victimization rates in the literature vary according to whether data are collected prior (22%) or subsequent (52%) to treatment. Previous research suggests that the incidence of sexual abuse varies as a function of victim age and gender.

Adolescent sibling-incest offenders: differences in family and individual functioning when compared to adolescent nonsibling sex offenders.

Adolescent male sex offenders who assaulted younger siblings (n = 32) were compared to those who offended against nonsibling children (n = 28). Data were based on responses to the Assessing Environments (III) Scale, Family-of-Origin Scale, Youth Self-Report, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Unlike many earlier studies of adolescent sex offenders, sexual offending/victimization histories were based on information collected from regular meetings rather than intake files or initial interviews; offenders' age, socioeconomic status (SES), and social desirability were examined to avoid potential confounds of these variables; victim age and gender were analyzed to ensure that comparisons between sibling and nonsibling offenders were not confounded by victim age or gender; and internal consistencies of the variables were verified with a larger clinical sample (n = 209).