Evaluating & Improving Risk Assessment & Schemes for Sexual

Project Summary for 2003-WG-BX-1002 The goal of this research project is to address the critical need to improve accuracy in risk assessment for sexual offenders and hence improve decision-making about sexual offenders. The study will investigate the most widely used acturial instruments for facilitating correct decisions relating to the management of sexual offenders. The study will examine the instruments under conditions of greater methodological rigor than previous research has allowed, explore the contexts in which specific instruments are maximally useful, and apply advances in psychometrics and predictive statistics to generate improved actuarial instruments. The research will focus on the outcome data of an original study that was completed before actuarial instruments had been developed. The participants in the origninal study were selected from two groups of sexually aggressive offenders evaluated at the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons (MTC) between 1959 and 1984. Between 1985 and 1987 all of the participants in the study were tracked through four followup record sources. These data will provide the basis of the multiple outcome measures for the study. CA/ncf