Research Corner
In 2018, the Colorado Legislature funded the SOMB to develop a Provider Data Management
System (PDMS) to gather evaluation, treatment, and polygraph data on clients that fall under the
purview of the SOMB. On January 1, 2020, the PDMS was officially launched and
implementation began. Over the last four years, Statistical Analyst, Dr. Yuanting Zhang has
assisted with the development of a data management system, trained providers on the system and how to enter data, continues to support providers, and is now gathering some great information to analyze.
Dr. Zhang and SOMB staff have been reviewing data from the questions asked in the PDMS. For
example, was adjunct treatment utilized during treatment, what was the mode of the treatment
sessions, how were the client’s needs identified, has the client previously been in Sex Offense
Specific Treatment, was this a repeat exam, and were new admissions made to the polygraph
examiner. While providers have been inputting data, they have also shared some information in
the comments section of this platform.
In the Adult Beginning Treatment section, one provider shared “Due to the length of time since
his sexual offense conviction (more than ten years), use of validated risk assessments would be
inappropriate” and “The evaluator who completed the original evaluation did not provide any risk assessments, just clinical opinion.” A couple of other examples in this section are, “I used the recommendations on the SOMB white paper for female offenders,” or “There are no known risk assessments for a person who was born male and identifies as a transwoman. The
VASOR/SOTIPS were used as they committed their crime as a male and were used as a clinical
indicator not an actuarial assessment.” SOMB staff are reviewing which risk assessments are
being used, how they are incorporating denial intervention, and what the results were of a current polygraph examination. In the Beginning Level of Denial Intervention section, a provider stated the client “attended an accountability group and index offense polygraph to work on addressing issues of denial for behaviors he was not acknowledging.” Another comment in this section stated “Must build rapport. Use non-inflammatory language, describe elements of what makes sexual behavior a crime and he admitted that the victim could not consent, that he had greater power than victim and used coercion to get her to comply. However, at other times he would deny he committed a sex offense.”
Comments are being entered by treatment providers, evaluators, and polygraph examiners and
while this is a glimpse of some of the information the SOMB has gathered; the SOMB would
like to thank providers for sharing this information and encourage providers to continue entering
this data. The SOMB staff will continue to review and share this information with the field to
assist with implementation, training and technical assistance as well as determine the need for
possible revisions of the Standards and Guidelines. Stay tuned for more information on the data
being collected in the Annual Legislative Report or for more information, please feel free to contact Yuanting.Zhang@state.co.us.
The SOMB Provider Data Management System is nearing its third anniversary (SOMB Provider Database). Thank you to everyone for diligently entering data into the system. Your contributions have allowed us to report trend analyses in the last two annual legislative reports (SOMB Research & Reports). We will add our third year of trend analyses in the upcoming report. We also continue to explore options for answering pertinent research questions with the data. We are working on a current project analyzing whether specific client characteristics are associated with discharge outcomes, and we will share the findings with the field in the future.
I wish to emphasize that NOW is the time of the year to continue this awesome work! I need your help to submit all of the required evaluation, treatment, and polygraph data by November 1st, 2022. I will extract data for the third-year trend analyses on Nov. 1st, which will be reported in the 2023 Legislative report.
If you have any questions or comments on the data management system, data entry, or trend analyses, please feel to contact Yuanting.Zhang@state.co.us.
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