Franca Cortoni

• Université de Montréal

The present study features the development of new risk categories and recidivism estimates for the Violence Risk Scale (VRS), a violence risk assessment and treatment planning tool. We employed a combined North American multisite sample (k = 6, N = 1,338) of adult mostly male offenders, many with violent criminal histories, from correctional or for...

Cognitions that support sexual offending, atypical sexuality, and problems with self-regulation are important indicators of offending among men who engage in contact sexual offences against children (e.g., Hanson & Morton-Bourgon, 2005). While sexual interest in children – a major indicator of atypical sexuality – has been identified as a risk fact...

RÉSUMÉ Au cours des dernières décennies, il ne fait aucun doute que c’est en matière d’évaluation et d’intervention auprès des auteurs d’infractions sexuelles que les progrès ont été les plus remarquables en matière des services correctionnels psychologiques. Cela n’efface pas toute controverse ou le besoin de poursuivre les recherches et de peaufi...

Although many instruments have been validated to assess risk of sexual recidivism among men, no similar tool exists for women who have sexually offended. As a result, some jurisdictions use male-based instruments to assess women despite the lack of validation research examining the predictive utility for this subgroup. This study examined the utili...

This chapter provides an overview of the current state of the literature on what works to prevent sexual violence and sexual aggression in global contexts. It includes a discussion of the unique considerations for prevention in global contexts, the current quality of research, and the availability of data. The chapter presents a review of what is c...

This chapter focuses on the community dynamic risk management of individuals convicted of sexual offenses. It surveys public perceptions of sexual violence, because how citizens feel about their safety often drives political and legislative agendas. The chapter critically reviews the most common outcomes of those legislative agendas—measures instit...

Much controversy has surrounded the question about whether or not mental disorder, and more specifically major mental illness (MMI), is associated with sexual violence. This chapter reviews the literature describing the relationship between MMI and problematic sexual behavior. It examines the implications of MMI for risk assessment and formulation,...

Prevention of sexual violence is a worldwide priority. This chapter provides a framework for understanding some of the risk factors and correlates for sexual violence, with an emphasis on gender inequality. It reviews programs targeting young adult men, particularly those with a bystander focus. The chapter provides recommendations for moving the f...

This chapter reviews clinical, empirical, and theoretical models of sexual homicide. It takes a chronological approach to the way the key features of sexual murderers have been reported. The chapter presents the key findings in each of the phases of development of knowledge about sexual murderers. According to the FBI motivational model, both the s...

Pharmacological agents have an important role in treating and reducing risk in some sexual offenders, but also attract controversy, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and opposition. Sexual offenders can have paraphilic disorders or paraphilia‐related disorders. This chapter covers medications used in current clinical practice to reduce sexual ur...

There are many aspects of the sexual‐offender therapy that can indicate its value to society. Reductions in the number of, and harm to, victims, and the productivity of successfully reintegrated sexual offenders are a few examples of ways sexual‐offender treatment programs can provide benefits to society other than just reduced reoffending. This ch...

Psychometric assessments are used in forensic settings to measure latent variables or dynamic risk factors, which are changeable factors and therefore potentially amenable to treatment. This chapter focuses on the use of psychometric measures to measure dynamic risk factors. The most commonly used psychometric measure targeting the risk factors wit...

This chapter examines research findings concerning several of the most noteworthy examples of: sex offender registration and community notification (a.k.a. “Megan's Laws”); residence restrictions; involuntary and indeterminate civil commitment (a.k.a. “sexually violent predator” laws); and use of electronic monitoring (EM). In a nutshell, sex offen...

This chapter encourages thoughtful and critical evaluation of policies that affect the lives of children under age 18 who have engaged in illegal sexual behavior, as well as the practice of professionals who work with these children. It focuses on the policies enacted in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America that affect ch...

This chapter reviews the literature on the treatment of sexually abusive behavior with respect to both the general and cognitively disabled populations, and provides recommendations for a model of treatment and support for those with a disability. Developments in the psychological treatment of sexual offending in the general population has followed...

This chapter summarizes single‐factor and multifactorial theories that seek to explain the sexual abuse of children, and outlines empirical evidence that tests these theories. It examines the theories that may explain contact sexual offending against children. The theory that holding a sexual interest in children is causally linked to sexual abuse...

The Crime Classification Manual (1992) utilized exhibitionism and voyeurism as examples of nuisance offenses, and as time progressed with the development of social media and internet pornography sites, child and teen pornography were adopted into this category of noncontact sexual offenses as well. This chapter focuses on voyeuristic and exhibition...

In modern forensic psychology, there are basically three different methodological approaches to risk assessment: unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial risk assessment instruments (ARAIs), and structured professional judgment (SPJ). The Static‐99 is the ARAI most commonly used and best validated for individuals convicted of sexual offenses. The...

Despite the large number of children who are regularly involved, there has been relatively little attention to addressing child sexual abuse in youth‐serving organizations. This chapter is organized around the four‐step public‐health framework. Given the nascent nature of research on child sexual abuse in youth‐serving organizations, the chapter fo...

This chapter reviews the evidence regarding the construct validity of penile plethysmography (PPG) and of indirect measures designed to assess sexual interest in children. For PPG, it focuses on comparisons of men who have committed sexual offenses against children with those who have not, and comparisons of sexual offenders against children (SOCs)...

This chapter describes an effective contemporary program with the aim of tertiary prevention of sexual offending. It draws heavily upon the authors' experience in the design and oversight of programs running in Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The chapter briefly reviews the development of current approaches within the wider cont...

This chapter focuses on responsive treatment options for male adults who have sexually offended. It begins with commentary regarding the processes of getting men into treatment and having them stay there, which includes consideration of what types of therapists are most likely to succeed, under what circumstances. The chapter reviews the processes...

Sexual sadism has been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) since the mid‐20th century. The DSM‐5 committee distinguished between sadistic behaviors on consenting partners and nonconsenting persons. The lack of consensus on the diagnostic criteria for sexual sadism is in part responsible for the poor inter‐rat...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a common, severe, and preventable problem that contributes to the national and global burden of disease. Effective CSA prevention efforts are needed to avert harm to victim and their families, and reduce monetary and nonmonetary costs borne by victims, their families, and society. This chapter reviews criminal‐justice in...

To shed light on men who sexually offend online, this chapter synthesizes the research on this subgroup of sexual offenders against children, with a focus on typologies, assessment, treatment issues, and prevention strategies for online offenders. It reviews the typologies proposed for three large groups of offenders against children—consumers of c...

The societal impact of sexually abusive behaviors (SABs) makes their reduction an important public health priority. SABs in youth are best understood within their developmental context. Available research has focused on boys, who engage in SAB much more frequently than girls. This chapter provides an up‐to‐date, comprehensive summary of the empiric...

This chapter focuses on the assessment of forensically relevant sexual sadism. Assessing sadism is a complex and challenging task in the course of legal proceedings and in forensic‐clinical settings, given the specific contextual demands at the different stages of the criminal justice process. The same principles that apply generally to effective s...

Craig and Rettenberger proposed an etiological approach to sexual offender assessment integrating the key developmental, offending behavior, and risk‐assessment theory into one model, referred as the CAse Formulation Incorporating Risk Assessment (CAFIRA) model. This chapter seeks to update the model by incorporating neurobiological and neuropsycho...

The issue of sexual abuse is a global socio‐political one, which means that, despite international differences in sexual harm policy and practice surrounding sexual abuse, the creation and implementation of these policies and practices are politically sensitive. This chapter critically considers the risk‐management strategies that are “common” inte...

This chapter presents the noteworthy explanatory theories and models, and empirical results, related to sexual aggression against women. Sexual offending against women is polymorphic, and comprises sexual violence, sexual misconduct, and sexual exploitation. The chapter focuses on rape and contact sexual aggression. The scientific community's inter...

This chapter introduces the scientific literature on the life‐course development of antisocial and criminal behavior. It provides a review of key concepts and findings related to criminal‐career research, developmental criminology, and life‐course criminology. chapter examines some of the implications of such research for the description, explanati...

Understanding and working with women who have sexually offended require an understanding of the nature of sexual offending by women, and gender‐specific assessment, treatment, and management strategies. This chapter provides an overview of these issues. Female sexual offenders, like their male counterparts, engage in a variety of sexually offending...

Purpose Relatively little research has been conducted with high‐risk violent (non‐sexual) offenders to establish whether measures administered to evaluate change during offending behaviour programmes contain risk relevant information. The present study aims to contribute to the evidence base relevant to decisions concerning whether or not psychomet...

Although offense-supportive cognitions are related to the maintenance of contact sexual offending behavior, it is unknown whether this finding also applies to online sexual offending behavior. A few studies have examined the cognitions of men convicted for using child sexual exploitation material, but findings remain limited due to important method...

There is evidence that endorsing a higher level of offense-supportive cognitions is associated with contact sexual offending. Such an association assumes the construct of cognitions as unidimensional, thus ignoring the possibility that specific subtypes of cognitions exist and that certain may be criminogenic. To investigate this possibility, this...

Tools designed to measure the cognitions of individuals who engage in sexual activities with children over the Internet are either based on knowledge about men who had committed contact sexual offenses or cognitive phenomena not specifically associated to offending behaviors. Thus, there is no validated tool specifically designed to assess the offe...

Research among contact sexual offenders has found that offense-related cognitions contribute to sexual offending (e.g., Helmus, Hanson, Babchishin & Mann, 2012), and likely contribute to online sexual offending. Furthermore, sexual deviance, another well-established factor associated with contact offending, is also presumed to contribute to online...

Paraphiliac individuals rarely exhibit only one paraphilia. Instead, high levels of comorbidity with other sexual interests are typically found. Pedophilia is the common paraphilia among child molesters but also, and even more so, among child pornography offenders. Also, studies suggest an association between the use of pornography and sexual arous...

Si les connaissances relatives aux délinquantes sexuelles se sont développées au cours des dernières décennies, les codélinquantes sexuelles ont été peu étudiées, alors que ces femmes représentent une part importante des délinquantes sexuelles. Le but de la présente étude était de mettre en lumière les trajectoires de vie des femmes qui agressent e...

It is now well established that offenders hold offense-supportive cognitions that are associated to sexual offending and recidivism. Given their role in sexual offending, these cognitions are an important target in the treatment and the rehabilitation of offenders (e.g. Andrews & Bonta, 2006). For this purpose, psychometric tools have been develope...

This chapter considers a number of approaches to assessing risk in sexual offenders and measures used to assess levels of deviancy in sexual offenders and how this relates to treatment. It discusses assessment considerations for Internet, juvenile, and female sexual offenders, and sexual offenders with intellectual disabilities, special subgroups t...

The Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) is a self-report measure of aggressiveness commonly employed in nonforensic and forensic settings and is included in violent offender pre- and posttreatment assessment batteries. The aim of the current study was to assess the fit of the four-factor model of the AQ with violent offenders ( N = 271), a pop...

Female sexual offenders are a diverse group of individuals with differing motivational and offending patterns. As such, they require treatment services that are appropriate to their needs. While the factors related to sexually offending behaviour in women appear similar to those of male sexual offenders, research indicates that they manifest themse...

Although female and male sexual offenders appear to share some characteristics, important differences in their risk of offending indicate that a gender-informed approach to the understanding of female sexual offenders is warranted. The term ‘gender-informed’ refers to factors that are either unique to or that manifest themselves in unique ways amon...

Women commit sexual offenses, but the proportion of sexual offenders who are female is subject to debates. Based on 17 samples from 12 countries, the current meta-analysis found that a small proportion of sexual offenses reported to police are committed by females (fixed-effect meta-analytical average = 2.2%). In contrast, victimization surveys ind...

The Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) is often used with sexual offenders, but its factor structure has never been examined in this population. The primary aim of this study was to assess the fit of the proposed four-factor model of the AQ reported in previous studies on a sample of incarcerated sexual offenders (N = 293). Results of a serie...

As female sexual offenders increasingly come to the attention of the criminal justice system, a better understanding of the issues related to their assessment and management is required. To that aim, this chapter provides a review of the latest theoretical and empirical knowledge required to conduct the assessment of risk of recidivism and treatmen...

In comparison to men, women commit considerably less crimes and they diverge in the paths that brought them to the attention of the criminal justice system. Women also diverge in their responses to custody and community supervision, likely due to their lower risk of reoffending and the differing nature of their risk and needs (Blanchette & Brown, 2...

The purpose of an actuarial instrument is to generate a score or numeric index that can be used to predict the probability of an event. The Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI), which is an inventory of the level of service and the management of cases, is part of the last generation of risk-assessment actuarial tools. The predictive...

Although public and scientific awareness of female sexual offenders has increased, information related to this group remains scarce. This is problematic because it is clear that the research being conducted on male sexual offenders does not necessarily generalize to their female counterparts. Women convicted for sexual offenses, just like men, are...

Some jurisdictions have legally decreed that certain nonsexual offenses (e.g., promoting prostitution of a minor, arson, burglary) can be considered sexual offenses. Offenders convicted of these crimes can be subjected to sexual offender-specific social control policies such as registration, as well as be included in sexual offender research such a...

According to Ward (2000), cognitive distortions emerge from “implicit theories” (ITs). Ward and Keenan (1999) established a typology of the ITs of child molesters in which they classified existing knowledge on their cognitive distortions into five categories: “entitlement”, “nature of harm”, “uncontrollability”, “child as sexual being” and “dangero...

The latent factor structure of the Aggression Questionnaire with violent offenders

Implicit theories are defined as underlying and interconnected beliefs that influence conscious thoughts and their related behaviors (Ward, 2000). Implicit theories have been investigated in male and female sexual offenders and male violent offenders, but never in female violent offenders. Research shows that male violent offenders’ cognitions can...

L’image de la violence qu’offrent la littérature et son genre policier consacré à l’homicide, ainsi que les médias, constamment à l’affût de l’extraordinaire et du monstrueux, n’a pas grand-chose à voir avec celle de la science. Ainsi les violences criminelles sont-elles sans relâche imaginées, racontées, décrites, dénoncées. Mais qu’en est-il vra...

This chapter considers the development of risk assessment methodologies such as structured guided assessments and actuarial measures used in the assessment of sexual and violent offenders. In relation to assessing risk in sexual offenders, measures of sexual deviance (pre-occupation/obsessions with sex), intimacy deficits and affect dysregulation h...

Among general female offenders, approaches to treatment based on the 'What works' literature have been shown to be effective in reducing criminal recidivism. Among female sexual offenders, however, systematic empirically validated knowledge about the factors related to sexual offending among females has only recently emerged. Nevertheless, there is...

Rape-supportive cognition is both theoretically and empirically related to rape. Several types of rape-supportive cognition (cognitive distortions) have been identified in the literature, suggesting that rapists’ rape-supportive cognition may be multidimensional. The Bumby RAPE Scale is one measure of rape-supportive cognition. The authors conducte...

IntroductionStatic Risk FactorsDynamic Risk FactorsStable Dynamic Risk FactorsAcute Dynamic Risk FactorsConclusion

Prevalence of female sexual offendingCharacteristics of female sexual offendersOffending characteristicsOffending process among female sexual offendersAssessment of risk and treatment needsTreatmentConclusion References

The main purpose of this study was to assess treatment change at both the group level and the individual level with a sample of 313 adult male sex offenders. Generally, the results from the group-level analyses were more positive than those from the individual-level analyses. The group-level analyses revealed significant change of medium magnitude...

In an effort to protect citizens from sexual assault, many jurisdictions have instituted measures such as public notification, involuntary commitment, electronic tracking, and intensive supervision. Many of these measures are based on restricting offenders’ activities or making the public aware of their whereabouts. Over thirty states in the United...

Purpose. The goal of the present research was to develop a screening measure to assist in identifying offenders at risk for drop‐out or expulsion from correctional programmes. Methods. Non‐Aboriginal male offenders ( N = 5,247) were randomly divided into a development sample ( N = 2,617) and a validation sample ( N = 2,630). In the development samp...

Organisation and Content of the BookReferences

Key Developments in Female Sexual OffendingFuture Directions for Research and Treatment with Female Sexual OffendersConclusion References

This study examined the recidivism rates of female sexual offenders. A meta-analysis of 10 studies (2,490 offenders; average follow-up 6.5 years) showed that female sexual offenders have extremely low rates of sexual recidivism (less than 3%). The recidivism rates for violent (including sexual) offences and for any type of crime were predictably hi...

In past years, the female offender population has grown, leading to an increased interest in the characteristics of female offenders. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of female violent offending in a Swiss offender population and to compare possible socio-demographic and offense-related gender differences. Descriptive and bivariat...

Circles of Support & Accountability (COSA) started 15 years ago in Ontario, Canada, as an alternate means of social support to high-risk sexual offenders released at the end of their sentences without any community supervision. The pilot project in South-Central Ontario has since assisted almost 200 offenders. Projects based on this model are now i...

There were two purposes to this study: 1) provide an estimate of the proportion of sexual offenders who are women; and 2) establish the known sexual recidivism rates among female sexual offenders. The proportion of sexual offenders who were women was estimated based on two general sources of information. The first source of information was the offi...

Résumé Contrairement à la perspective « Nothing works » de Martinson (1974), l’approche « What works ? » du traitement correctionnel s’est centrée sur la possibilité que le traitement correctionnel soit efficace dans la réduction de la récidive criminelle des délinquants. Les preuves empiriques examinées dans le présent article corroborent le fait...

Ce rapport est également disponible en français. Pour en obtenir un exemplaire, veuillez vous adresser à la Direction de la recherche, Service correctionnel du Canada, 340, avenue Laurier Ouest, Ottawa (Ontario) K1A 0P9.

The extent to which general criminality and sexual deviance are associated with dropout or expulsion from a sex-offender treatment program was examined. Participants were 52 offenders who dropped out of, or were expelled from, their last sex-offender program and a comparison group of 48 program completers. As expected, the general criminality items...

More than 12 years ago, a group of concerned citizens formed a community-based support group for a recently-released, high-risk sexual offender. This community action was later formalized as Circles of Support & Accountability (COSA), a project stewarded by the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario and sponsored in part by the Correctional Service...

The release to the community of a sexual offender is frequently accompanied by intense coverage in the news media. Too often, the type of coverage these releases receive serves only to force many offenders into hiding or out of one community and into another. Forced to move to another community, the scapegoating process starts all over again. It is...