Center for Sex Offender Management- CSOM

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Assessment Show | Hide

The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (ERASOR)
The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (The ERASOR: Worling & Curwen, 2001) is an empirically-guided checklist to assist evaluators to estimate the short-term risk of a sexual reoffense for youth aged 12-18. The ERASOR is currently in widespread use throughout Canada and the U.S. and it is also being used in a number of other countries. To download the ERASOR manual and materials, click here.

Assessing the Risk of Sexual Offenders on Community Supervision: The Dynamic Supervision Project
This report reveals information about stable and acute dynamic risk factors and their implications for supervision practice; and focuses on the use of the STABLE and ACUTE risk assessment instruments. The study provides evidence that trained community supervision officers can reliably score valid and useful sex offender risk assessments.

Current Practices and Emerging Trends in Sexual Abuser Management The Safer Society 2009 North American Survey
This survey of adult and juvenile sexual abuser treatment programs is the 9th of its kind conducted by the Safer Society Foundation. It reports on data collected from programs throughout the United States and, for the first time, on data from Canadian programs. The survey presents an overview of current practice patterns in North America, identifies key trends in the field, and offers recommendations for improving the delivery of treatment services.

Static-99
This site is dedicated to the community of Static-99 users, and governed by an Advisory Board whose members approve and submit content, and rotate responsibility for answering Static-99 coding questions. Our intent is to provide useful information in a timely manner, and to promote best practices in sexual offender assessment among professionals who routinely use the instrument.

ATSA Position Statement on Risk Assessment
This link provides an overview of ATSA's position statement on sex offender risk assessment.

Vermont Assessment of Sex Offender Risk (VASOR)
The Vermont Assessment of Sex Offender Risk (VASOR), developed by Robert McGrath and Stephen Hoke, is a risk assessment scale for adult male sex offenders age 18 and older. It aids clinicians, correctional caseworkers, and probation and parole officers in making placement and supervision decisions. The VASOR is composed of two scales, a 13-item reoffense risk scale and a 6-item violence scale. The reoffense risk scale is designed for assessing the likelihood of sexual recidivism. The violence scale is designed for assessing the nature of an individual's violence history and offense severity. Author contact information is listed within the manual.

Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol - II
The Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol - II (J-SOAP-II), developed by Robert Prentky, Ph.D. & Sue Righthand, Ph.D., is a checklist whose purpose is to aid in the systematic review of risk factors that have been identified in the professional literature as associated with sexual and criminal offending. It is designed to be used with boys who are ages 12 through 18 years old. The J-SOAP-II may be used to assess the risk of sexual reoffending for nonadjudicated youth with a history of sexually coercive behavior as well as those who have been adjudicated for sexual offenses. This manual describes the development of the J-SOAP-II and provides instructions for its use. Users are encouraged to contact the authors for further information about training, updates, revisions, or questions that arise about the J-SOAP-II (contact information is listed within the manual).

Supervision Show | Hide

Treatment Show | Hide

Juveniles Who Commit Sex Offenses Show | Hide

The Estimate of Risk of Adolescent Sexual Offense Recidivism (The ERASOR: Worling & Curwen, 2001) is an empirically-guided checklist to assist evaluators to estimate the short-term risk of a sexual reoffense for youth aged 12-18. The ERASOR is currently in widespread use throughout Canada and the U.S. and it is also being used in a number of other countries. To download the ERASOR manual and materials, click here.

The Sex Offense-Specific Treatment Needs & Progress Scale (SOS-NPRS), developed by Sue Righthand, Ph.D., is a treatment progress scale for youth who have committed sexual offenses. It is designed to facilitate the clinical assessment of dynamic risk factors that have been identified in the empirical and clinical literature as associated with the risk of sexual and criminal offending among these youths. The SOS-NPRS is not a risk assessment instrument and has not been validated as a measure of treatment progress. Rather, it is a guide that may facilitate the clinical assessment of treatment progress for youths receiving sex offense-specific interventions. Users of the SOS-NPRS are encouraged to conduct research investigating the utility of this measure.

The Effective Management of Juvenile Sex Offenders in the Community: Case Management Protocols
Case management protocols were developed by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (VDJJ) in support of improving the consistency and effectiveness of community supervision and management of juvenile sex offenders across the state. VDJJ has authorized the broader dissemination of these guidelines to the juvenile sex offender management field in hope that they will be of assistance to legal and clinical professionals working in other states.

Juveniles Who Have Sexually Offended: A Review of the Professional Literature, Sue Righthand and Carlann Welch, March 2001 (OJJDP)
This report provides a comprehensive and annotated account of the characteristics of juveniles who commit sex offenses and their families, and the type of offenses they commit. A broad array of clinical assessment tools, including psychological testing, are described, and a thorough discussion of recidivism rates and issues is presented. The Report concludes with a review of treatment approaches and settings and a look at program assessment. Youth who have committed sex offenses both have developmental needs and pose unique risks related to their abusive behaviors. The information provided by the review of the professional literature presented in this Report should enable us to better address those needs and risks.

OJJDP
This bulletin from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention draws on data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Incident-Based Reporting System to provide population-based epidemiological information on juvenile sex offending. The document includes findings that are designed to inform the policies and practices of those who share responsibility for managing juveniles who commit sex offenses against minors.

Legislative Trends Show | Hide

The Pursuit of Safety, Sex Offender Policy in the United States
Following a brief history of sex offender laws and a discussion of some of the current issues in the field, the report examines six significant trends in recent sex offender legislation: stricter sentencing, enhanced registration requirements, expanded community notification, more residency restrictions, the spread of electronic monitoring, and the growth of civil commitment of convicted sex offenders.

Housing and Residence Restrictions

Colorado 2004
This document summarizes the research that the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, Office of Domestic Violence and Sex Offender Management, conducted on the safety issues raised by the living arrangements of sex offenders in the community. The research focused on two key questions: (1) Do the living arrangements of sex offenders, including Shared Living Arrangements, have an impact on community safety? (2) Do the locations of sex offender residences, specifically in proximity to schools and childcare centers, have an impact on community safety?

Colorado 2009
This white paper, from the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB), summarizes the outcomes of a number of the studies that have been conducted on the effectiveness of residence restrictions, and provides an overview of experiences in Colorado with such restrictions. The efforts of the SOMB to examine the impact of residence restrictions on community safety in Colorado are also highlighted.

Minnesota 2003
This report, developed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections for the State Legislature, explores the impact of residence restrictions and other management strategies for level three (high risk) sex offenders in Minnesota. The report includes a number of recommendations regarding how the state can improve the management of these offenders.

Minnesota 2007
This report, developed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, summarizes the results of a study conducted in Minnesota to examine the potential deterrent effect of sex offender residence restrictions. The study analyzes the sexual re-offense patterns of 224 recidivists who were released from prisons in Minnesota between 1990 and 2002, and who were re-incarcerated for a sex crime prior to 2006.

Iowa 2006
This resource is a statement on sex offender residence restrictions that was written by the Iowa County Attorneys Association (ICAA). The document explains that basis for ICCA’s conclusion that the 2,000 foot residence restriction for sex offenders in Iowa does not provide the protection that was originally intended, and that the cost of enforcing the restriction and the unintended effects on families of offenders warrant replacing the restriction with more effective protective measures.

ATSA 2008
This public policy brief from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers defines what a sex offender residence restriction is, provides historical information on the use of these restrictions, lists the states where these restrictions have been implemented, and summarizes the research that has been conducted on the impact of these restrictions. The document also briefly describes research-supported management practices with sex offenders and includes a list of resource documents.

Kansas Department of Corrections: Findings on Residency Restrictions for Sex Offenders
This brief fact sheet, authored by the Kansas Department of Corrections, contains twenty findings regarding the research on residential restrictions for sex offenders and describes Iowa's experience with those policies.

California Research Bureau: The Impact of Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders and Correctional Management Practices: a Literature Review
This document provides an overview of residency restrictions for sex offenders across the country, examines the effectiveness of these laws, discusses comprehensive risk assessment and the containment approach as management tools, and addresses the legal and constitutional implications of residency restrictions.

Fiscal, Policy, and Legal Considerations Regarding State Compliance with the Adam Walsh Act
This brief focuses on fiscal, policy, and legal considerations that may be relevant to legislators in determining whether to substantially implement the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). To the extent information is available, the potential fiscal impact of substantially implementing SORNA will be compared to the impact of non-compliance. This brief will also focus on three SORNA requirements that Florida has not adopted and that appear most likely to generate discussion and debate: the registration of employment information and public listing of the address of the employer of a registered sex offender; the registration of school information and public listing of the address of a secondary school of a registered juvenile sex offender; and the retroactive application of SORNA requirements.

Sex Offender Residence Restrictions
This document reviews the history of residence restrictions policies for sex offenders, their effectiveness, and their observed and potential unintended consequences.

Impact of Residency Restrictions on Sex Offenders: A Literature Review
This document provides a review of the literature related to sex offender residency restrictions. It includes an overview of state residency restriction laws, a discussion of sex offender risk assessment, and a state by state comparison of how jurisdictions have implemented residence restriction and other sex offender related legislation.

Adam Walsh Act

Sex Offender Management Policy in the States, Strengthening Policy & Practice
This document, developed by the Council of State Governments, provides an overview of sex offenders and a detailed review of the provisions of the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, issues related to compliance with the act that states are currently addressing, and notable legal challenges to it. The resource also reviews what is known about the effectiveness of registration laws and residency restrictions for sex offenders, and provides a state-by-state review of sex offender-related laws.

Registration and Notification

Fifty State Survey of Adult Sex Offender Registration Requirements
This chart catalogues statutes that address adult sex offender registration requirements in all fifty states, as well as surrounding territories. This chart provides a list of all registerable offenses; indicates whether sex offender registration is required for staff sexual misconduct; details the type of information maintained in the sex offender registry, community notification and other websites; identifies limitations on residency or employment; and identifies the duration of registration.

Sexual Assault Resources Show | Hide

SART Toolkit
Sexual violence affects many aspects of a victim's life—including safety and health, family and work situations, and finances—and often leads to perplexing legal questions. To receive basic assistance, victims often must navigate a complicated maze of governmental and community agencies. SARTs, or sexual assault response teams, help victims through the maze. The SART Toolkit is a resource both for communities considering a SART response and communities that already have a coordinated response but want to make it better.

NSVRC
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center serves as the nation’s principle information and resource center regarding all aspects of sexual violence. It provides national leadership, consultation and technical assistance by generating and facilitating the development and flow of information on sexual violence intervention and prevention strategies. The NSVRC works to address the causes and impact of sexual violence through collaboration, prevention efforts and the distribution of resources.

Voices and Faces Project
The Voices and Faces Project is a national documentary project created to give voice and face to survivors of sexual violence, offering a sense of solidarity to those who have lived through rape and abuse while raising awareness of how this human rights and public health issue impacts victims, families and communities.

List of State Sexual Assault Coalitions
This is a complete list of the contact information for each state's sexual assault coalition. Contact your coalition or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center for information on local services for victims of sexual assault.

National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents
This first National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations provides detailed guidelines for criminal justice and health care practitioners in responding to the immediate needs of sexual assault victims.

National Training Standards for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents
The National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents provides details on the roles of responders to sexual assault as part of a coordinated community response. National Training Standards for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examiners is a companion to the protocol and includes recommendations for training objectives and topics that will enable an examiner to carry out the recommendations.

Collaboration for Victims’ Rights and Services
This chapter explores the concept of collaboration and recommended strategies for successful collaborative efforts to enhance public safety and improve victim services by examining types of working relationships, challenges to successful working relationships, moving beyond “traditional” stakeholders for collaborative initiatives, the community as a partner in collaboration, the relationships among national, state, and local victim services, and providing a checklist for successful collaborative efforts. Office for Victims of Crime, National Victim Assistance Academy 2000, Chapter 19.

Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey
This NIJ Research Report presents findings on the prevalence and incidence of rape, physical assault, and stalking; the rate of injury among rape and physical assault victims; and injured victims' use of medical devices. Findings in this report, which are based on the National Violence Against Women Survey, show that violence is more widespread and injurious to women's and men's health than previously thought.

Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judge's Role in Stranger and Nonstranger Rape and Sexual Assault Cases
The National Judicial Education Program to Promote Equality for Women and Men in the Courts announces an important new resource for education about rape that is focused on judges but is relevant also to probation departments, prosecutors, defense attorneys, victim advocates, medical personnel, and police. Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judge's Role in Stranger and Non-stranger Rape and Sexual Assault Cases is a self-directed video version of NJEP's highly regarded model judicial education curriculum, Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judicial Response to Stranger and Nonstranger Rape and Sexual Assault. The video/self-study guide version will enable judges to access critical information on an as-needed basis and on their own time schedules. The curriculum focuses on learning to deal fairly with sexual assault cases, especially nonstranger rapes, without undermining defendants' constitutional rights. This flyer provides a summary of the curriculum and ordering instructions.

CDC Sexual Violence Fact Sheet
This fact sheet succinctly answers a number of commonly asked questions regarding sexual violence, including: Why is sexual violence a public health problem? How does sexual violence affect health? Who is at risk for sexual violence? How can we prevent sexual violence? How does CDC approach sexual violence prevention? Where can I learn more?

Prevention Show | Hide

Green Dot
Green Dot, etc. is an organization built on the premise that we can measurably and systematically reduce violence within any given community. We believe current research across disciplines, in combination with lessons learned from history, provides nearly all of the necessary puzzle pieces to create a successful model of violence prevention. Given this foundation of knowledge, we believe any group, committed to equipping themselves with the necessary skills and willing to let go of historically ineffective approaches, has the capacity to implement a successful violence prevention strategy.

Men Can Stop Rape
Men Can Stop Rape mobilizes male youth to prevent men's violence against women. We build young men's capacity to challenge harmful aspects of traditional masculinity, to value alternative visions of male strength, and to embrace their vital role as allies with women and girls in fostering healthy relationships and gender equity.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center bystander fact sheet
"It's time…to incorporate bystander intervention into sexual violence prevention" - This three-page fact sheet presents a brief overview of the bystander intervention approach to sexual violence prevention, key points about this type of intervention, evidence-based outcomes regarding the effectiveness of the approach and key resources for finding additional information about this model.

Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention
This book presents a compelling orientation to the importance of engaging bystanders in sexual violence prevention. The narrative provides background on the development of an approach that empowers each of us to be involved in prevention. It discusses various reasons why individuals who witness a range of inappropriate behaviors may or may not take action, and presents ways to encourage and develop greater bystander involvement. Finally, this book serves as an excellent training resource; it provides activities and trainer instructions throughout that make it a useful educational guide on bystander engagement in sexual violence prevention. Also available in Spanish.

National Plan to Prevent the Sexual Victimization of Children
The purpose of this plan is to help assure all children have childhoods free from sexual abuse and exploitation in both physical and digital environments and have opportunities to develop into healthy adults capable of having healthy relationships. The plan addresses the need to reduce the societal demand for commercial and individual exploitation of children and outlines a strategy to prevent children from being perceived and used as sexual commodities.

What Do U.S. Adults Think About Child Sexual Abuse?
Between 1995 and 2007, Stop It Now! and its local program affiliates commissioned ten telephone surveys to gauge adult knowledge and attitudes on the issue. The report, What Do U.S. Adults Think about Child Sexual Abuse? Measures of Knowledge and Attitudes Among Six States, summarizes key findings and program implications from an analysis of a new, statistically valid, national dataset of over 5,000 US adults.

Sexual Violence Prevention: Beginning the Dialogue
Sexual violence is a serious public health problem with extensive short- and long-term health consequences. Sexual Violence Prevention: Beginning the Dialogue identifies concepts and strategies that may be used as a foundation for planning, implementing, and evaluating sexual violence prevention activities.

Rape Prevention and Risk Reduction: Review of the Research Literature for Practitioners
For many professionals working in the field of sexual assault, one of the most pressing questions is what can be done to prevent it. Practitioners have been designing and implementing rape prevention programs for decades. The purpose of this article, from VAWnet, the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, is to summarize the research regarding the impact of various prevention programs and to describe key lessons that are emerging regarding the implementation of effective programs.

Using Rapist Risk Factors to Set an Agenda for Rape Prevention
This article, from VAWnet, the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, emphasizes the importance of developing prevention and early intervention programs to reduce the occurrence of rape. It focuses on the contemporary literature regarding the behaviors, traits, developmental experiences, and biological antecedents that seem to be associated with an increased probability that males will become sexually aggressive. The paper also identifies gaps in the existing base of knowledge that must be addressed to develop prevention programs that are maximally effective, and discusses interventions that may be successful in preventing rape.

Department of Justice Resources Show | Hide

National Training Standards for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents
The National Protocol for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examinations for Adults and Adolescents provides details on the roles of responders to sexual assault as part of a coordinated community response. National Training Standards for Sexual Assault Medical Forensic Examiners is a companion to the protocol and includes recommendations for training objectives and topics that will enable an examiner to carry out the recommendations.

Sexual Assault Response Teams Toolkit
The SART Toolkit is a collection of resources for communities that are considering building a SART team or those that want to improve their existing coordinated response to victims of sexual assault. Effective SARTs leverage the knowledge that each component of the multidisciplinary team brings to the response. By using the tools in this resource, and by working with the strengths of each agency, SARTs are able to provide a coordinated response to ensure the needs of victims are met.

Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994
This study presents, for the first time, data on the rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment of 9,691 male sex offenders, including 4,295 child molesters, who were tracked for 3 years after their release from prisons in 15 States in 1994. The 9,691 are two-thirds of all the male sex offenders released from prisons in the United States in 1994. The study represents the largest follow-up ever conducted of convicted sex offenders following discharge from prison and provides the most comprehensive assessment of their behavior after release.

Reference Library Show | Hide

Other Resources