reoffending than those who completed treatment. The predictors of nonsexual violent recidivism and general (any) recidivism were similar to those predictors found among nonsexual criminals (e.g., prior violent offenses, age, juvenile deliquency). Our results suggest that applied risk assessments of sexual offenders should consider separately the offender's risk for sexual and nonsexual recidivism. Assessing chronicity is crucial for clients whose sexual behaviors have brought them into conflict with the law. Many exceptional criminal justice policies, such as postsentence detention (e.g., Anderson & Masters, 1992), lifetime community supervision, and community notification, target those sexual offenders likely to reoffend. Clinicians need to judge whether the client's behaviors are truly atypical of the individual (as the client would like us to believe) or whether the client merits a virtually permanent label as a sexual offender.

/pdf/predicting-relapse-a-meta-analysis-of-sexual-offender-ml492rgh0h.pdf

Predicting relapse: a meta-analysis of sexual offender recidivism studies.

Federal Abortion Policy and Politics: 1973-1996 Why is Abortion Such a Controversial issue in the United States Barriers to Access to Abortion Services The Impact of Anti-abortion Activities on Women Seeking Abortions Black Women and the Question of Abortion Latinos and Abortion Abortion and Asian Pacific Islander Americans The Acceptability of Medical Abortion to Women Understanding the Relationship of Violence Against Women to Unwanted Pregnancy and it's Resolution Testing a Model of the Psychological Consequences of Abortion Men and Abortion: The Gender Politics of Pregnancy Resolution Abortion Among Adolescents A Cognitive Approach to Patient-Centered Abortion Care Abortion Issues in Psychotherapy Bringing Lessons Learned to the United States Improving Access to Abortion Services Abortion Practice, Policy, and Research: Recommendations for the 21st Century

Violent offenders: Appraising and managing risk.

This review compared the accuracy of various approaches to the prediction of recidivism among sexual offenders. On the basis of a meta-analysis of 536 findings drawn from 118 distinct samples (45,398 sexual offenders, 16 countries), empirically derived actuarial measures were more accurate than unstructured professional judgment for all outcomes (sexual, violent, or any recidivism). The accuracy of structured professional judgment was intermediate between the accuracy found for the actuarial measures and for unstructured professional judgment. The effect sizes for the actuarial measures were moderate to large by conventional standards (average d values of 0.67-0.97); however, the utility of the actuarial measures will vary according to the referral question and samples assessed. Further research should identify the psychologically meaningfully factors that contribute to risk for reoffending. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

http://static99.org/pdfdocs/hansonandm-b2009riskassessment.pdf

The accuracy of recidivism risk assessments for sexual offenders: a meta-analysis of 118 prediction studies.

Effective intervention with sexual offenders requires the targeting of appropriate risk factors. In this study, information on dynamic (changeable) risk factors was collected through interviews with community supervision officers and file reviews of 208 sexual offense recidivists and 201 nonrecidivists. The recidivists were generally considered to have poor social supports, attitudes tolerant of sexual assault, antisocial lifestyles, poor self-management strategies, and difficulties cooperating with supervision. The overall mood of the recidivists and nonrecidivists was similar, but the recidivists showed increased anger and subjective distress just before reoffending. The dynamic risk factors reported by the officers continued to be strongly associated with recidivism, even after controlling for preexisting differences in static risk factors. The factors identified in the interview data were reflected (to a lesser extent) in the officers' contemporaneous case notes, which suggests that the interview find...

Where Should We Intervene? Dynamic Predictors of Sexual Offense Recidivism

Violent offenders: Appraising and managing risk, 2nd ed.

The assessment of offender risk plays an important role in corrections, both in terms of its influence on program allocation and promoting the safe release of offenders into the community. Paroling...

The prediction of recidivism among federally sentenced offenders: A re-validation of the SIR scale.

Research is reviewed from Canada, Great Britain, and the USA, which suggests that offenders granted parole are reconvicted less than those not so released. The competing explanations for this uniformly observed difference are evaluated. It is concluded that the most likely explanation is in terms of a treatment effect rather than a consequence of the selection of better risk prisoners alone. Something about the grant or process of parole seems to work to reduce reconviction. This could be something as disreputable as the use of delaying tactics to postpone a further conviction until after licence expiry. There could also be a negative effect of parole denial to offset any positive effect of the grant of parole. Research is suggested which would clarify these points. Assuming remaining doubts are resolved in ways favourable to parole, there appears to be some grounds for optimism for parole schemes to develop into criminal justice procedures which have the net effect of crime reduction.

William G. Harman

Papers

The prediction of recidivism among federally sentenced offenders: A re-validation of the SIR scale.

Does Parole Reduce the Risk of Reconviction