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In psychological testing, the term ‘ecological validity’ (EV) refers to the degree to which a test assesses (or estimates) via a proxy task a person's ability to do a ‘real‐life’ task. While EV has been a critical evaluative component of some areas of psychological testing, it has not featured to date as important in the area of risk assessment. If the goal of risk assessment is to enhance risk management, then this is a critical oversight. It would appear that all forms of risk assessment measures are lacking EV. EV is important because risk management occurs in the community. The ARMIDILO is mentioned as an instrument that has attempted to include environmental variables to enhance EV and thus facilitate the risk manageability of ID sex offenders. It is proposed that the EV of other risk measures could be enhanced by the inclusion of similar environmental variables.

This paper aims to provide a description of a trauma sensitive intervention for men who have committed sexual offences. The intervention aims to support men to process and make sense of their own experience of trauma before inviting them to acknowledge their role in causing harm to others. The intervention draws on compassion focussed therapy (CFT) as the overarching therapeutic modality.

As part of a service evaluation changes in routine repeat measures completed by service users were analysed prior to joining the intervention and after 12 months of intervention. Service users were encouraged to provide regular feedback relating to their experience of the intervention at regular intervals. This feedback was collated and patterns were identified collaboratively to understand the context for assessed change in the measures.

Prior to the intervention men reported high levels of shame and limited experiences of guilt (as compassion for others). Early findings indicate that men experience less shame and increased experiences of guilt after 12 months. An increase in insight into risk was also evident. Service user feedback pointed towards a more engaging therapeutic style and highlighted the importance of both a collaborative and trauma sensitive approach.

This is the first evaluative description of forensic CFT for sexual offending. Findings offer insight into potential future directions for forensic interventions with this population.

Risk assessment studies involving recidivism in sex offenders with intellectual disabilities (SOIDs) continue to be scarce, limited and producing mixed results. This study aims (to test the ability ...) to test the ability of one such instrument (the Static-99R) to predict intramural sexual and violent incidents involving members of this group.

The Static-99R was prospectively scored for 38 SOIDs. Occurrences of any violent or sexual incident and/or illegal sexual behaviour were recorded during a minimum period of six months. Predictive accuracy was analysed using several performance indicators.

The Static-99R significantly predicted sexual incidents (area under the curve = 0.70) but failed to predict violent and illegal sexual incidents. Regarding illegal sexual incidents, the instrument was better at detecting low-risk individuals than high-risk offenders.

Risk assessment studies, both in offenders with and without an intellectual disability (ID), rarely use multiple accuracy estimates. The current study used both discrimination and calibration indicators to evaluate the ability of the Static-99R to detect low- and high-risk offenders.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relevance of the Structured Assessment of Risk and Need (SARN) for sexual offenders with intellectual disability (ID).

A thematic analysis was conducted on the transcript of a discussion group of experts who work with sex offenders with ID in custody.

The principal concern of the researchers at the outset of the paper was that the risk factors within the SARN might not be relevant to sexual offenders with an intellectual disability. However, what emerged from the analysis was that, from the perspective of expert practitioners, the limitations of the SARN with respect to working with sex offenders with ID is as much to do with the way in which it is administered, as it is to do with its “content”.

The process of risk assessment is critical when assessing risk with sex offenders with ID, highlighting the importance of incorporating responsivity principles into the risk assessment process.

The paper encourages risk assessors to rethink their assumptions about indicators of risk and progress and provides guidance about how practitioners can assess risk more effectively with sex offenders with ID.

Sex Offenders with a Major Mental Illness (SOMMI) are doubly stigmatized, as these individuals are members of two highly marginalized social groups (Guidry and Saleh, 2004). Within each of these groups SOMMI only represent a small minority. For professionals seeking to base their practice in empirical research this has led to a significant problem since the literature related specifically to this group is both limited and hard to locate. Additionally, intensity of psychological risk factors varies as a function of psychiatric decompensation for some SOMMI making it hard to apply certain procedures that work with ordinary sexual offenders. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature and recommendations for clinical practice that are responsive to the particular challenges posed by this unusual group of sexual offenders.

The current paper provides a review of literature on risk factors for sexual recidivism and validity of current risk tools as it pertains to SOMMI. Recommendations for risk assessment with SOMMI are provided.

The static actuarial tools appear to be useful with SOMMI. However, risk assessments measuring dynamic risk factors have poorer predictive validity. Additional factors that will need to be considered involve a possible higher recidivism rate for SOMMI and a variable relationship between major mental illness and sex offending with it sometimes predisposing, sometimes exacerbating existing risk factors, and sometimes mitigating risk.

There is a paucity of research and guidance in assessment and risk management of SOMMI. The current paper is the first to thoroughly explore the efficacy of current sex offender risk assessment tools with SOMMI and provide structured guidance for making decisions about risk and risk management needs for this challenging population.

There are limited risk assessment tools validated for use with the internet child abuse material (I/CAM) offender cohort. Developed through a multi-stage process, the purpose of this paper is to present the “Estimated Risk for Internet Child Sexual Offending” (ERICSO), a new tool for I/CAM offender assessment, including demographic, collection, nature of engagement and social domains, plus a structured professional judgement section. Validation studies remain ongoing.

This paper presents a case series analysis of six Australian men, including two Aboriginal men, convicted of I/CAM offences to pilot proposed ERICSO domains and commence validation against the short self-esteem scale, University of California Los Angles loneliness scale, internet sex screening test and the sexual violence risk-20 V2.

Participants of all ages generally reported histories of mental health diagnosis and/or treatment and substance abuse. Two participants reported prior sexual offending, one for I/CAM offences. Participants expressed sexual preferences for female child victims and were convicted of possessing thousands of I/CAM files. Two participants reported accessing I/CAM for over six and 10 years, respectively, before detection by law enforcement.

Preliminary implications indicate ERICSO higher scores are consistent with I/CAM offenders having more online sexual behaviour diversity and more areas of risk/treatment need. For example, participants with problematic self-esteem and loneliness in our data set have higher ERICSO scores. Social connectedness may be a relevant factor though definitive conclusions cannot be drawn from the small sample size.

The ERICSO presents novel assessment of factors in considering treatment targets in addressing both illegal I/CAM and problematic legal sexual behaviours.

This is the second of two papers which aims to describe the development of a sex offender assessment and treatment service for men with intellectual disability (ID) within a community ID service. The first paper by McBrien et al. in 2010 described the mapping of need, the assessment methods and results.

This paper describes how decisions were made about whether or not to enrol 20 assessed men on group treatment and outlines the treatment group and outcomes.

None of the seven men who completed treatment had committed a further sexual offence at 12‐24 months follow‐up. Other outcomes are discussed including the outcomes for the men who did not start or complete treatment. The available measures are not sufficiently sophisticated to detect change in individuals.

This paper contributes to the literature that describes the assessment and treatment of men with an ID who have committed sexually harmful behaviours. It describes one community service's response to the complex needs of this client group.

Managing the risk of sex offending and sexually harmful behaviour presented by some men with intellectual disabilities is enhanced if community services map the number in their catchment area, apply appropriate risk assessment and management methods, and implement evidence‐based treatment. This paper describes the methods and progress of one community intellectual disability service in mapping and assessing the risks. A second paper is planned that will address progress in treatment.

There is increasing emphasis on caring for people with intellectual disabilities in the least restrictive, ideally community settings. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the risk factors considered by clinicians involved in discharging people from secure services.

The views of five senior clinicians were sought in semi structured interviews. Data were analysed thematically.

Themes related to risk assessment, risk management, and multidisciplinary and multiagency working. Illustrative quotes are used to evidence themes.

This study described the risk assessment and management factors considered during the discharge of patients from secure to community services, which are of direct relevance to multiple stakeholders post-Winterbourne.

Challenges when facilitating discharge were highlighted, such as ongoing risk management issues, or unexpected discharge from tribunals, and how these were addressed, via the development of extensive risk assessment and management processes, and interdisciplinary and interagency working.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the validity and reliability of the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability: Adolescent Version (START:AV) to determine if it has predictive accuracy in relation to physical aggression, severe verbal aggression, property damage and self-harm, in a medium secure setting. In addition, the authors hoped to provide some of the first descriptive data available for the START:AV among a UK adolescent population in a medium secure adolescent unit.

The sample consisted of 90 female and male adolescents, with and without developmental disabilities. It was important to explore the measure’s predictive accuracy across specific population groups, such as between males and females, as well as those with developmental disabilities, and those without.

Some significant relationships were found between the START:AV and adverse outcomes. For instance, total strength and vulnerability scores were predictive for verbal and physical aggression. Differences in predictive validity were evident when comparisons were made between males and females, with relationships being evident amongst the male population only. When splitting the male sample into developmental disability and non-developmental disability groups, significant relationships were found between strength and vulnerability scores and verbal and physical aggression.

A number of practical implications are considered, such as the START:AV is relevant for use with adolescents in hospital settings and the significant inverse relationship between strength scores and negative outcomes supports the importance of considering protective/strength factors when working with at risk youths.

There is currently limited validation data for the START:AV in the UK or elsewhere.