3 67 NETWORK ANALYSIS DYNAMIC RISK FACTORS 3.5 METHOD 3.5.1. PARTICIPANTS The data, collected between January 2001 and November 2005, were taken from the dynamic supervision project (DSP; Hanson et al., 2007). This project aimed to improve the quality of community supervision of people with a history of sexual offenses by testing the STABLE-2000, a dynamic risk assessment instrument, and by developing a revision of this instrument, the STABLE-2007 (Hanson et al., 2007). People participating in this project were adults (age 18 year or older) from any of the Canadian provinces and territories and the U.S. states of Alaska and Iowa who were starting a period of community supervision (probation or parole) for a sexual offense. The average age of the overall sample, which included a total of 805 sex offenders, was 40 years (SD = 13.5) at the time of release from custody after serving sentences for noncontact offenses (9%), extrafamilial child molesting (27%), incest (24%), rape (35%), and a mix of these offense types (5%). Of this group, 71% were serving their first sentence for a sexual offense. Most of the sexual offenses (78%) involved physical contact. In 12% of the offenses, the victim was physically injured, and in 0.5% of the cases, the victim had experienced life-threatening injuries. Approximately 10% of the participants had been hospitalized for a psychiatric condition, and 5% had previously been diagnosed as developmentally delayed. Data of 15 participants were excluded from analysis because either the participant’s gender was unknown (n = 8), 5 or more of the 13 risk factors had not been scored (n = 1), or a score was missing for the dynamic risk factor capacity for relationship stability (n = 6). In addition, the data of females with a history of sexual offenses (n = 2) were excluded because different assessment procedures are recommended for women (Cortoni et al., 2010). Thus, the final sample consisted of 788 adult male sex offenders. Recidivism data, with a median follow-up of 41 months, were available from official criminal records for 611 (76% of the total sample) of the adult male sex offenders. The rate for sexual recidivism after 5 years was 10.8%, whereas for all violent (including sexual contact) offenses, the recidivism rate was 20.4%. More detailed information about the sample can be found in the DSP research report (Hanson et al., 2007). 3.5.2 ASSESSMENT OF DYNAMIC RISK FACTORS The STABLE-2007 was used to measure stable dynamic risk factors relevant to the prediction of sexual recidivism in adult men with a history of sexual offenses (e.g., personality characteristics, skill deficits, and learned behaviors; Fernandez et al., 2012; Hanson et al., 2007). The STABLE-2007 constitutes a revision of the STABLE-2000. Three attitude items of the STABLE-2000 were dropped from the STABLE-2007 because they were not significantly related to sexual recidivism (Hanson et al., 2007). In addition, items about relationship stability in intimate partnerships and deviant sexual interests were revised to more clearly incorporate past behavior. Finally, the emotional identification
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