[ANSWER]Assessment and Treatment of Offenders A2: A Critical Comparison of Approaches Used in Assessing Violent and Sexual Offenders

Topic: Sexual Offenders

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Evidence-based approaches fall in two broad categories: the structured professional judgment (SPJ) approach and the statistical approach. The SPJ approach, also referred to as clinical risk assessment, involves the use of qualitative, non-numerical measures in assessing sexual offenders risk (Thornton & D’Orazio 2016). In this approach, the assessor considers various conceptually defined and empirically supported risk factors to make a professional judgment regarding an offender’s dangerousness (Murray & Thomson 2010).

Generally, the assessor rates an sexual offender’s dangerousness as low, moderate, or high. Clinical risk assessments can be done for both violent and sexual offenders. Some of the commonly used tools in violent offender assessment include the Historical Clinical Risk Managment-20 (HCR-20) and the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth (SAVRY) (Thornton & D’Orazio 2016). For sex offenses, the Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP), the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence (SAPROF), and the Sexual Violence Risk-20 (SVR-20) are some of the commonly used instruments (Thornton & D’Orazio 2016).

These instruments consider several aspects, including historical sexual deviation, prior non-sexual violent offenses, past non-violent offenses, childhood victimisation, severe mental illness, suicidal ideation, psychopathy, substance abuse, as well as relationship difficulties.    Whereas the SPJ approach relies on qualitative measures, the statistical…[Buy Full Answer for Just USD 9: 2335 WORDS] Home

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Type: Essay

Word Count: 2335

Grade/Mark: 97 (Distinction)