Evaluating Sex Offenders

A Manual for Civil Commitments and Beyond

A professional volume to help practitioners, clinicians, counsellors, and parole officers, assess risk and evaluate offenders who have been convicted of a sex crime. This is the most comprehensive volume available on every aspect of assessing risk. It compares all current risk assessment techniques of sex offenders in terms of ease of use, reliability, and predictive power. It is a complete guide to assessing sex offenders for likelihood of re-offense, and provides a wealth of information on other aspects of the assessment process, including information gathering, interviewing offenders, and writing reports. Chapter topics include: defining risk; data gathering; diagnostic issues; recidivism base rates; risk factor lists; actuarial scales; instrumentation (violent and sexual); the evaluation report; presenting in court; ethical issues.

· This book collects, compares, and contrasts all risk assessment instruments currently available including the pros and cons of each as well as the reliability and ease of use.

· Practitioners will have all these instruments in one volume and they will be able to make an intelligent decision on which one to use.

· This is the first book where suggested diagnostic criteria for a certain disorder, Paraphilia Not Otherwise Specified, Nonconsent, are enumerated and explicated and where certain error rates (called confidence intervals) are printed concerning actuarial risk assessment instrument estimates.