Protective Factors and Recidivism in Accused Juveniles Who Sexually Offended

Abstract

To date, research on juvenile sexual offender recidivism has tended to focus on risk factors rather than protective factors. Therefore, very little is known about protective factors in the population of juveniles who sexually offended. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of protective factors on non-recidivism in a sample of accused juveniles who sexually offended (N = 71) in a mean follow-up period of 47.84 months. Protective factors were measured with the Protective Factor Scale of the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY), and the Structured Assessment of PROtective Factors for violence risk (SAPROF). Criminal charges served as recidivism data. The internal scale of the SAPROF, in particular, yielded moderate predictive accuracy for the absence of violent and general recidivism, though not for the absence of sexual recidivism. No protective factor of the SAVRY did reveal predictive accuracy regarding various types of the absence of recidivism. Furthermore, protective factors failed to achieve any significant incremental predictive accuracy beyond that captured by the SAVRY risk factors alone. The potential therapeutic benefit of protective factors in juvenile sexual offender treatment is discussed.

Protective Factors in Violence Risk Assessment: Predictive Validity of the SAPROF and HCR-20V3

“…In the only study to examine the effect of change in the presence of SAPROF protective factors over time, an increase in protective factors following inpatient treatment was found to be associated with an absence of violence in the community in a sample of male forensic psychiatric patients (de Vries Robbé, de Vogel, Douglas, & Nijman, 2015). Other studies focusing on adolescent populations and sexual offending (Klein, Rettenberger, Yoon, Köhler, & Briken, 2015;Zeng, Chu, & Lee, 2015) found no consistent relationship between protective factors and violence although they used the adult, rather than the subsequently published adolescent version (de Vries Robbé, Geers, Stapel, Hilterman, & de Vogel, 2015). Perhaps most notably, many studies exploring the validity of the SAPROF have been conducted by the tool's authors, and may therefore be susceptible to authorship bias (Singh, Grann, & Fazel, 2013).…”

“…Both estimates are rated as low, moderate, or high and require the assessor to interpret and integrate the available information using their professional judgment. The SAPROF has been shown to correlate with protective factors assessed in other SPJ risk assessment tools (Abidin et al, 2013;Klein et al, 2015). Interrater reliability is generally good and for the total SAPROF score ranges from ICC = .65 (Zeng et al, 2015) to .92 (Klein et al, 2015 (Douglas, Hart, et al, 2013, p. 36).…”

“…The SAPROF has been shown to correlate with protective factors assessed in other SPJ risk assessment tools (Abidin et al, 2013;Klein et al, 2015). Interrater reliability is generally good and for the total SAPROF score ranges from ICC = .65 (Zeng et al, 2015) to .92 (Klein et al, 2015 (Douglas, Hart, et al, 2013, p. 36). Incidents of violence were extracted from an existing electronic database used by staff to record all adverse incidents within the hospital; staff are required to record all adverse incidents immediately, select a category of incident based on clearly defined criteria, and provide detailed descriptions of the events.…”

Strength based approaches and protective factors from a criminological perspective

“…In terms of psychological strengths, the SPIn screens for attitudes, social and cognitive skills, and mental health (Jones et al, 2015). A significant amount of attention has of course been given to understanding the accuracy of risk assessment that incorporates protective factors for juvenile offenders (Spice et al, 2013, Zeng et al, 2015, Klein et al, 2015, Taylor et al, 2004. While such tools are of value for practitioners, there are many issues.…”

The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) guidelines for the treatment of adolescent sexual offenders with paraphilic disorders

“…In the studies by Klein et al. ( 2012 , 2015 ), using the SAVRY and the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for violence risk (SAPROF), risk factors and protective factors were significantly and negatively correlated. Protective factors failed to achieve a significant incremental predictive accuracy beyond that captured by the SAVRY risk factors alone.…”