Conférences 2009 Discussion et échanges avec Clifford Shearing

Dr. Karl Hanson is one of the leading researchers in the field of sexual offender risk assessment and treatment. Originally trained as a clinical psychologist, he spent several years providing direct service to offenders before starting a research position with the Canadian Federal Government (then Solicitor General Canada, now called Public Safety Canada). His mandate has been to advance policy-relevant knowledge concerning the assessment and treatment of offenders. Most of his research has focused on sexual offenders, with a secondary interest in men who have been physically abusive to their intimate partners. He has published more than 100 articles, including several highly influential reviews, and has developed the most widely used risk assessment tools for sexual offenders (Static-99). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and the 2002 recipient of Significant Achievement Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders.

Mercredi 25 mars 2009 
11h45 à 13h00 
Pavillon Lionel Groulx, 3150 rue Jean-Brillant
Salle B-3325

Résumé de la conférence : Psychological risk assessments for crime and violence have improved considerably during the past 20 years, largely based on increased use of evidence-based risk assessment procedures. In this presentation, I will review the major recidivism risk factors that have been identified in previous metaanalyses, and the evidence for the predictive accuracy of various risk prediction tools for general, violent and sexual recidivism. One outstanding problem is that most of the research on risk prediction has focused on relative risk with little attention to absolute recidivism rates.

As well, consensus has not been achieved on the constructs assessed by the various risk tools, nor the best method of combining factors into an overall evaluation of risk. Advancing risk assessment for crime and violence requires psychometrically sound evaluations of psychologically meaningful causal risk factors described using non-arbitrary metrics.