The Effective Management of Juvenile Sex Offenders in the Community

1. The Effective Management of Juvenile Sex Offenders in the Community Section 3: Assessment

2. Key Topics for The Assessment Section • Part I: Broad Assessment Issues • Part II: Style and Process • Part III: Pre-Disposition Report • Part IV: Psychosexual Evaluation • Part V: Risk Assessment Section 3

3. Defining Assessment • To estimate or determine the significance or importance of something(s) • To observe or monitor • To evaluate Section 3

4. Examples of Key Stakeholders • Forensic evaluators • Specialized treatment providers • Supervision officers • Teachers, other school officials • Release decisionmakers • Parents/caregivers • Family therapists • Victim therapists • Juvenile and family court judges Section 3

5. Ongoing Process, Not An Event • Risk and needs change • Assess critical variables over time • Promotes informed, timely responses Section 3

6. What types of assessment data are needed to make informed decisions about juvenile sex offenders? Section 3

7. Individual variables Level of risk Sexual history and adjustment Mental health difficulties Substance abuse Maltreatment history Intellectual, cognitive functioning School performance Family variables Parent/caregiver capacity Parental risk factors Violence in the home Environmental variables Peer influences Community influences Access to victims, victim safety issues Examples of Important Assessment Data Points Section 3

8. Assess Strengths and Assets • Individual • Family • Environmental Section 3

9. Assessment Data Sources • Interviews with youth • Collateral interviews • Comprehensive records • General psychological measures • Offense-specific measures • Physiological tools Section 3

10. Goals Influence Data Needs • Inform disposition or sentencing • Identify supervision needs • Determine supervision level • Identify treatment needs • Measure treatment progress • Assess treatment/supervision compliance Section 3

11. Collaboration is Vital • Different system actors, different data • Information-sharing is needed • Potential statutory/policy restrictions • Releases of information • Memoranda of understanding Section 3

12. Summary • Key to informed decisionmaking • Everyone has a role • Ongoing process vs. single event • Multiple data sources • Collaboration, information-sharing Section 3

13. Style and Approach are Important • Goal is to obtain complete, accurate information • Process and strategy may facilitate or hinder disclosure • Focus on rapport Section 3

14. Contextual Variables • Stigma, shame, and guilt • Intensely personal nature of questions • Overwhelming court processes • Cultural norms and influences Section 3

15. Invitations to Responsibility • Shift from coercive, shame-based, and confrontational models • Emphasizes respectful and therapeutic engagement of clients • Highlights the concept of choice • Assists clients with identifying their own motivations to change (Jenkins, 1990, 1998) Section 3

16. Motivational Interviewing: Guiding Principles • Express empathy • Develop discrepancy • Roll with resistance • Support self-efficacy (Miller & Rollnick, 1991, 2002) Section 3

17. Simple vocabulary Open-ended questions “Successive approximation” Resist challenging minimizations or contradictions Positive reinforcement Additional Interviewing Tips (see, e.g., Lambie & Robson, 2006; McGrath, 1990; Miller & Rollnick, 2002; Rich, 2003) Section 3

18. Pre-Disposition Report • Often first opportunity to assess comprehensively • Informs decisionmaking for judges • Provides baseline data • Should follow youth throughout system • Foundation of case management Section 3

19. Overarching Considerations • Accountability and rehabilitation • Victim impact, victim needs • Community safety interests Section 3

20. Offense information Prior delinquency Youth functioning Family functioning Aggravating and mitigating factors Victim impact Sexual, non-sexual risk levels Appropriate placement options Recommendations PSR/PDR: Critical Elements Section 3

21. Child and Adolescent Strengths and Needs – Sexual Development (CANS-SD) • Structured needs assessment • Multiple domains assessed • Functioning • Risk behaviors • Mental health needs • Care intensity and organization • Caregiver capacity • Strengths • Characteristics of sexual behavior (Lyons, 2001) Section 3

22. Recommendations • Specialized programs, services, interventions • Suggested placement, level of care • Special conditions of supervision, if applicable • Fines, restitution • Best course of action should be offered Section 3

23. Section 3

24. Section 3

25. Psychosexual Evaluation • Not identical to general psychological evaluation • Requires specialized training and experience • Forensic psychology • Adolescent mental health and juvenile justice • Sex offender management • Sexually abusive youth Section 3

26. Ideally Conducted Post-Adjudication • Ethical and legal questions may arise pre-adjudication • Presumption of guilt • Fifth amendment/self-incrimination • Ultimate issue/guilt or innocence • Best suited for informing disposition recommendations, case planning Section 3

27. Informed Consent • Explain your role • Review processes, procedures • Outline risks, benefits, consequences • Explain confidentiality limits • Allow for questions Section 3

28. Commonalities Across Evaluations • Clinical interview with juvenile and parent/caregiver • Thorough review of records • General psychological testing • Intellectual functioning • Personality adjustment • Emotional/psychological functioning Section 3

29. Unique Elements • Sex offense-specific assessment tools • Juvenile sex offense-specific risk assessment • Potential use of physiological tools • Comprehensive sexual history Section 3

30. Sexual learning Sexual development Early sexual experiences Masturbation Fantasies, “turn-ons” Explicit materials Age-appropriate, consensual experiences Victimization history Perpetration behaviors Potential paraphilias Sexual History Section 3

31. Examples of Psychosexual Assessment Measures • Adolescent Sexual Interest Cardsort • Becker & Kaplan, 1988 • Adolescent Cognitions Scale • Hunter, Becker, Kaplan, & Goodwin, 1991 • Multiphasic Sex Inventory-Juvenile Version • Nichols & Molinder, 1986, 2001 • Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths-Sexual Development • Lyons, 2001 Section 3

32. Physiological Tools • Penile plethysmograph • Viewing time (Abel Screen) • Polygraph Section 3

33. Plethysmography Cautions • Limited research with youth • Developmental factors may influence reliability/validity • Arousal patterns not firmly established with youth • Intrusive procedure, questionable stimuli Section 3

34. Programs UsingPlethysmograph with Juveniles (McGrath, Cumming, & Burchard, 2003) Section 3

35. Viewing Time Cautions • Little published research • Available evidence is mixed • Fairly promising • (see Abel et al., 1998; Becker & Harris, 2004; Letourneau, 2002) Section 3

36. Programs UsingViewing Time with Juveniles (McGrath, Cumming, & Burchard, 2003) Section 3

37. Polygraph Utilization Trends in Community-Based Programs (McGrath, Cumming, & Burchard, 2003) Section 3

38. Polygraph Cautions • Little research, especially with juveniles • Reliability and validity potentially influenced by developmental factors Section 3

39. Practice Guidelines: Physiological Measures with Youth • Not for guilt or innocence determinations • Not as a sole basis for key decisions • Specially trained users • Safeguards against self-incrimination • Informed consent • Best reserved for older youth Section 3

40. Attitude toward treatment, amenability Level of accountability Degree of psychosexual disturbance Special needs Environmental suitability Strengths and assets Risk level Range of treatment needs Suggested level of care/least restrictive placement options Summary and Recommendations: Psychosexual Evaluation Section 3

41. Risk Assessment • Increasingly influential • Effective and efficient allocation of resources • Consistency, structure, equity, and objectivity Section 3

42. Common Uses • Detention hold or release decisions • Level of custody or placement at disposition • Community supervision level • Sex offender registration and community notification Section 3

43. Age at first referral or adjudication Prior referrals or adjudications Nature of current charge Prior aggression Association with delinquent peers Social isolation History of abscondence Substance abuse Family instability, poor parent-child relations History of maltreatment School problems Risk Factors: General Delinquency or Youth Violence (see, e.g., Cottle et al., 2001; Lipsey & Derzon, 1998) Section 3

44. Risk Assessment Tools:General Delinquency • Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory • (Hoge & Andrews, 1996) • Structured Assessment of Violence Risk for Youth • (Bartel, Forth, & Barnum, 2002) • Michigan, Washington, and Wisconsin Risk Assessment Instruments Section 3

45. Risk Prediction Challenges for Juvenile Sex Offenders • Low base rates of recidivism • Limited number of well-designed studies on recidivism for youth Section 3

46. Family instability, poor parent-child relations Association with delinquent peers Social isolation Antisocial orientation, psychopathy Deviant arousal Sexual preoccupation, compulsivity Non-familiar victims Pro-offending attitudes Impulsivity Treatment non- compliance, termination Suggested Risk Factors for Juveniles: Sexual Recidivism (see, e.g., Prescott, 2006; Worling & Langstrom, 2006) Section 3

47. Risk Assessment Approaches • Unstructured clinical judgment • Empirically-guided • Actuarially-based Section 3

48. Limitations of Actuarials • Moderate–not high–predictive accuracy • Cannot identify actual risk of recidivism for specific individuals • Cannot affirmatively determine who will or will not reoffend Section 3

49. Promising Tools for Juveniles • Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol-II • (Prentky & Righthand, 2003) • Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism • (Worling & Curwen, 2001) Section 3

50. J-SOAP-II Subscales • Sexual drive/preoccupation • Impulsive, antisocial behavior • Intervention • Community stability/adjustment • (Prentky & Righthand, 2003) Section 3