NEARI Press and Training Center Newsletter - Volume 11, Issue 1: January 2018
The Influence of Age and Sexual Drive on the Predictive Validity of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol–Revised
Greetings!
Welcome to 2018 with NEARI Press and Training Center! 

In this first month of the year, we look at the article “The Influence of Age and Sexual Drive on the Predictive Validity of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol–Revised”  by Charity Wijetunga, Ricardo Martinez, Barry Rosenfeld, and Keith Cruise  that examines the predictive validity of the adolescent sexual recidivism assessment tool, the J-SOAP-II. Read more below to find out which of the measure’s scales significantly predicted sexual recidivism for juveniles who have perpetrated sexual harm.

As we begin the new year, don't forget to have a look at the NEARI Press catalog ( online here ) or go directly to our online bookstore . If you’re interested in receiving a hard copy of the catalog or are sponsoring an event at which you’d like to distribute it, please email Alisa at: aklein@neari.com . Our newest book, Dr. Robin Wilson and Peel Behavioural Services’, Passport to Independence: A Good Lives Model Workbook , is selling like hotcakes. You may want to purchase one -- or more -- too!
 
We are about half-way through NEARI Press and Training Center's FREE 2017-18 Webinar Series and it has been an extraordinary season so far. Our most recent webinar, "Cultural Sensitivity Working with Juvenile Sex Offenders and their Families," presented by Dr. Alejandro Leguizamo, was excellent -- the second webinar this season focused on working with competency across cultures. Next up over the coming three months (February through April) we are offering a "mini-series" of webinars presented by the faculty of the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth (NCSBY) on clinical assessment and decision-making in working with children with problematic sexual behavior. Don't miss them!

NEARI Press and Training Center is all over social media! Follow us on Twitter at @NeariPress and @NeariP2P. And don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook to get updates about all that we are doing.
 
As always, we look forward to hearing from you about the articles, authors, and topics you’d like us to cover in the NEARI e-Newsletter, our webinars, and our in-person trainings. Please contact Alisa if you have ideas and thoughts about the particular kinds of books, workbooks, and training you’d like to see NEARI Press and Training Center offer in the coming year. 
 
Thank you for your interest in NEARI, and for the vital work that you do to keep children and adults safe from sexual harm,
 
Craig Latham, Executive Director, NEARI 
Alisa Klein, Director, NEARI Press and Training Center, aklein@neari.com  
This month, David S. Prescott and Alisa Klein examine the article:
“The Influence of Age and Sexual Drive on the Predictive Validity of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol–Revised”
AUTHORS
Charity Wijetunga, Ricardo Martinez, Barry Rosenfeld, and Keith Cruise 
(Please see below for full citation and abstract.)

THE QUESTION
Does the most widely-used juvenile sexual offense recidivism risk assessment tool, the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol–Revised (J-SOAP-II), accurately predict recidivism among male adolescents who have perpetrated sexual harm? Do age and sexual drive have a moderating effect on the predictive validity for sexual recidivism of the J-SOAP-II?

THE RESEARCH
The J-SOAP-II is commonly used to gauge risk of re-offense and inform decisions regarding the treatment and placement of male youth who have perpetrated sexual harm. To date, 15 studies have examined the tool’s predictive validity with mixed results, although the cause of this inconsistency remains unclear. One possibility is that due to the rapid cognitive, psychosocial, and sexual development that occurs during adolescence, a youth’s maturation may impact the predictive validity of the J-SOAP-II. Another is that the measurement of youths’ sexual drive may be producing the inconsistency in the validity of the J-SOAP-II. As such, the authors, using a sample of 156 juveniles who have committed sexual offenses (JSOs), examined two characteristics of the J-SOAP-II for predictive validity:

  • Age; and
  • Sexual drive and preoccupation.

The 156 participants in the study were considered to have re-offended if they were arrested for a sexual charge, including non-contact offenses such as lewdness. Because sexual offenses can result in non-sexual offense convictions through plea bargaining, recidivism was determined on the basis of re-arrest rather than conviction. The predictive validity of the J-SOAP-II was compared across age and the presence or absence of heightened sexual drive. 
 
 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The authors cite two significant results:

  • The J-SOAP-II appeared to be a better predictor of sexual recidivism among adolescents ages 14 to 16 years old than for older adolescents aged 17-19 years; and
  • The J-SOAP-II significantly predicted sexual recidivism for adolescents with a clear pattern of sexualized behavior, but not for those without such a pattern. Overall, the J-SOAP-II was a somewhat better predictor of sexual recidivism for JSOs with heightened sexual drive and, as such, may have greater clinical utility for JSOs with heightened sexual drive. 

IMPLICATIONS FOR PROFESSIONALS
First, these findings illustrate the need for professionals to have a deep knowledge of the measures they use and the research that supports them. Like other measures of its kind, the J-SOAP-II is not simply a checklist of risk factors. Indeed, the instrument is described as a “protocol.” These findings further demonstrate the need for professionals to be humble in how they communicate risk assessment findings; first-rate assessments openly note the limitations of risk assessment. Finally, these findings once again highlight the need to keep risk assessments of young people time-limited in order to prevent misuse of instruments such as the J-SOAP-II. 
 
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FIELD
Once again, these findings highlight a basic fact about human beings: people change! Young people, in particular, are subject to change without notice. These changes can be physical, emotional, social, and involve neurological developments that bring improved decision-making and interpersonal skills. As much as our field craves predictive validity in our assessment measures, psychological maturation is itself unpredictable.
 
However, as much as our field’s attempts to develop risk assessment instruments for use in treatment and placement decisions has been a challenge, it is encouraging to see the numbers of studies involving J-SOAP-II that have been conducted by outside investigators. This prevents some sources of bias in the research process. Although no measure is as effective as its developers would like it to be, it is encouraging to see empirical study of these instruments continue. 
 
ABSTRACT
The Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol–Revised (J-SOAP-II) is the most commonly used measure in the assessment of recidivism risk among juveniles who have committed sexual offenses (JSOs), but mixed support exists for its predictive validity. This study compared the predictive validity of the J-SOAP-II across two offender characteristics, age and sexual drive, in a sample of 156 JSOs who had been discharged from a correctional facility or a residential treatment program. The J-SOAP-II appeared to be a better predictor of sexual recidivism for younger JSOs (14-16 years old) than for older ones (17-19 years old), with significant differences found for the Dynamic Summary Scale and Scale III (Intervention). In addition, several of the measure’s scales significantly predicted sexual recidivism for JSOs with a clear pattern of sexualized behavior but not for those without such a pattern, indicating that the J-SOAP-II may have greater clinical utility for JSOs with heightened sexual drive. The implications of these findings are discussed. 
 
CITATION  
Wijetunga, C., Martinez, R., Rosenfeld, B., and Cruise, K. (2018). The Influence of Age and Sexual Drive on the Predictive Validity of the Juvenile Sex Offender Assessment Protocol – Revised. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology , 62(1) 150–169      
           
NEARI Press and Training Center is excited to offer this free webinar "mini-series" featuring the deeply knowledgeable faculty from the National Center on the Sexual Behavior of Youth (NCSBY) at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Jane Silovsky and colleagues will discuss the clinical assessment of, and related decision-making for children with problematic sexual behavior.

CEs are available!

Join our friends at MASOC and MATSA for their annual conference in Marlborough, MA. It is a world-class conference with presenters from all over North America and beyond.

NEARI Press and Training Center will be there and we'll be selling books. Come by our booth to say hello!

In follow-up to last month's NEARI Newsletter that introduced the Unbalanced Youth Justice Project , we thought this analysis from the Sentencing Project that does a deeper dive into the disparities in the incarceration of black youth might be of interest. Among many other points of analysis, the report tells us that 44 percent of youth held in prisons, jails, residential treatment centers, detention centers, and training schools in the United States are black despite the fact that African Americans comprise only 16 percent of all youth in this country.

-----------------
From the Sacramento Bee
An Op-Ed by Nicole Pittman, JD
Director of the Center on Youth Registration Reform at Impact Justice
October 13, 2017

California took an important step toward ending the abusive practice of putting kids on sex offender registries when Gov. Jerry Brown signed  Senate Bill 384 , which allows juveniles to petition for their removal after five or 10 years.

When California became the first state to register children as sex offenders in 1986, there was little known about children who commit sexual offenses. At that time, treating them the same as adults seemed sensible. Today,  we have research that tells us  that putting them on registries does not prevent future child sexual abuse and can diminish public safety. 

Roughly 200,000 people on sex offender registries – including more than 3,500 in California – went on as kids, some for serious crimes but many others for playing doctor, streaking or teenage romances.

Sex offender registration laws stigmatize and isolate the very children they were meant to protect, ensuring their youthful indiscretions follow them into adulthood. Names, photos, and addresses are often made public, leading to vigilante violence, stigmatization, and severe psychological harm. One in five attempt suicide; too many succeed. There’s also now a strong body of evidence demonstrating that very few youth commit more sexual crimes. 

Child sexual abuse is a serious but preventable problem, but our policies and laws are only designed to respond as if abuse is inevitable and largely ignore solutions that prevent harm. The state budget allocates only $46,000 annually for prevention and victim services while the cost to register children is about $144 million.

Instead of using valuable resources to punish kids who harm, we should redirect them to evidence-based treatment and intervention.

While SB 384 offers a rare ray of hope, California can and must fully eliminate the policy of putting children on the sex offender registry. By doing so, we can prevent sexual harm and begin to create healthy, hopeful communities where all kids can be kids.
By: Toni Cavanagh Johnson, Ph.D.
Duration: 3-4 hours; CE Credits: 4

By:   Joan Tabachnick
Duration: 1-2 hours; CE Credits: 2

By: David S. Prescott, LICSW
Duration: 3-4 hours; CE Credits: 4

By: Steve Bengis, Ed.D., L.C.S.W. 
Duration: 4-5 hours; CE Credits: 5

By Reverend Debra Haffner & Joan Tabachnick 
Duration: 3-4 hours; CE Credits: 4

by Jamie Suvak, L.M.H.C. 
Duration: 1-2 hours; CE Credits: 2




Please consider becoming a sponsor of our exciting 2017-2018 NEARI Press and Training Center Webinar series. We have a great lineup of nationally recognized authors presenting their workbooks, research, and approaches to working with youth with sexual behavior problems. 

For $98 as an individual, or $250 as an organization, we will guarantee you up to 14 seats for the webinar AND you have access to FREE CE credits . We do all of the work to sign you up each month, and as a thank you for your support, we also offer you two free NEARI Press books. We will proudly publicize your sponsorship in all of our promotional literature and on the webinars themselves. 

For more information or to sign up, visit our website at www.nearipress.org OR contact Diane Langelier at 413.540.0712 x14, email info@nearipress.org .
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