In the news by Karen Franklin PhD: Putting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV

In the news by Karen Franklin PhD: Putting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Putting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV

As the developers of actuarial instruments such as the Static-99R acknowledge that their original norms inflated the risk of re-offense for sex offenders, a brand-new method is cropping up to preserve those inflated risk estimates in sexually violent predator civil commitment trials. The method introduces a new instrument, the “SRA-FV,” in order to bootstrap special “high-risk” norms on the Static-99R. Curious about the scientific support for this novel approach, I asked forensic psychologist and statistics expert Brian Abbott to weigh in.

Guest post by Brian Abbott, PhD*

NEWS FLASH: Results from the first peer-reviewed study about the Structured Risk Assessment: Forensic Version (“SRA-FV”), published in Sexual Abuse: Journal of Research and Treatment (“SAJRT”), demonstrate the instrument is not all that it’s cracked up to be.

To read more: In the news by Karen Franklin PhD: Putting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV