Practical Considerations in the Interview and Evaluation of Sexual Offenders

Abstract

The evaluation and assessment of sexual offenders is different than any other type of evaluation, and most clinicians are not properly trained to interview this population. This article addresses the clinical and ethical issues particular to the interview, assessment, and evaluation of these types of offenders. It offers both practical information regarding the interview itself, along with an overview of classification systems, paraphilias, and assessment techniques used with this population. In addition, issues related to risk assessment and risk management are also addressed, and an introduction to the use of actuarial risk assessment instruments is provided.

Sexual Offenders in Preventive Detention

“…The danger of a further offence is the critical point for the adjustment of preventive detention. The insufficient analysis of criminal prognosis is particularly reflected in the fact that a small number of pages are dedicated to this important topic and that none of the experts applied standardized prognostic instruments, which can serve as a tool to structure the experts' examination and protect them from overlooking important information (Boer et al, 1997;Clipson, 2003;Hanson, & Thornton, 1999;Nunes, Firestone, Bradford, Greenberg, & Broom, 2002;Vogel, Ruiter, Beek, & Mead, 2004). Our results show that the unstructured method of gathering information implies a risk that important data will be lost.…”

“…To obtain a clear view of the experts' proceedings and arguments concerning the criminal prognosis of the sexual offenders, we analyzed whether the experts considered aspects with prognostic value, which constitute, for example, part of the Sexual Violence Risk-20 (SVR-20;Boer, Hart, Kropp, & Webster, 1997) and the Static-99 (Hanson & Thornton, 1999). Both instruments comprise widely accepted risk factors of sexual delinquency (Clipson, 2003), which have been known but not been assembled in an accepted and statistically tested standardized form. Because of this point, it was not crucial that the SVR-20 and the Static-99 were not available in large parts of our study period; nonetheless, we tried to analyze in a further step whether the quality had grown during the second half of the period.…”

The attentional blink as an indicator of sexual interest

“…Legal action, social bias, and self-admission can all be barriers to obtaining honest and open information (Clipson, 2003). This is one reason why a variety of methods should be used in the assessment of sex offenders.…”