The Consideration of Empirically Unsupported Risk Factors in Risk Assessment Reports About Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offenses

Accurate risk assessment of individuals convicted of sexual offenses is crucial to prevent reoffending and prolonged institutionalization. However, findings indicate a heterogenous quality of risk assessment reports. Some of the qualitative variance may reflect differences in the strength of empirical evidence linking risk factors to reoffending. Some factors that have historically been important treatment targets have meta-analytically been shown to be empirically unsupported. To investigate the influence of unsupported risk factors on the decision-making process, the present study examined risk assessment reports ( N = 304) conducted between 1999 and 2016. Results showed a heterogenous consideration of empirically (un)supported risk factors. Reports following a structured risk assessment approach considered significantly more empirically supported risk factors than reports based on an unstructured, clinical-intuitive assessment procedure. Taken together, our findings provide further support for the use of structured and standardized risk assessment procedures and caution expert witnesses against incorporating empirically unsupported risk factors.