Examining psychologically meaningful risk factors for detected sexual offending in a community sample of individuals with and without sexual interest in children

Stephens, Skye; McPhail, Ian V.; Heasman, Ainslie; Gerritsen, Corry

doi:10.1080/13552600.2023.2192241

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Future studies of recidivism in this domain should include a self-report or a collateral report component, as has been done by researchers studying the risk of violence committed by discharged psychiatric patients (Hardin & Scurich, 2022;Monahan et al, 2001). This approach would produce more accurate estimates of recidivism and examine whether risk factors for detected recidivists are different than the risk factors for nondetected recidivists (e.g., Stephens et al, 2021Stephens et al, , 2023.…”

Section: Legally Relevant Subpopulations Of Sexual Offendersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk assessment of child-pornography-exclusive offenders.

Scurich

Krauss

2023

Law and Human Behavior

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Objectives: A sizeable percentage of federally sentenced child pornography offenders have no history of other criminal offenses (hereinafter "child-pornography-exclusive offenders"). There is a critical legal need to assess the recidivism risk of this population. The Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT) is a commonly used actuarial instrument developed specifically to assess the risk of recidivism among child pornography offenders. Hypotheses: We hypothesized that there would be a sound scientific basis supporting the use of the CPORT in the United States as well as research demonstrating its applicability to child-pornography-exclusive offenders, given that the instrument is currently being used in forensic settings. Method: We critically examined all of the existing empirical studies that constitute the research base of the CPORT. Results: The empirical studies of the CPORT suffer from at least three significant limitations: extremely small samples of recidivists, inordinate amounts of missing data, and potentially outdated samples. Further, none of the studies have tested the CPORT in a sample of offenders in the United States. An illustrative example of how the instrument has been misapplied in forensic settings and courtroom testimony is provided. Conclusions: These issues make it inappropriate to use the CPORT on child-pornography-exclusive offenders in the United States at this time. We conclude by describing avenues for future research that can advance our understanding of this distinct and growing population of offenders. Public Significance StatementA growing number of individuals with no criminal history are sentenced to federal prison each year for child pornography offenses. The Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT) is commonly used to assess the risk of recidivism among these offenders. We critically review the research base of the CPORT in this article and discuss how it is insufficient to justify the use of the CPORT in forensic settings and to inform important legal determinations.

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