4 87 REPLICATION AND COMPARISON NETWORKS 4.1.2 THE PRESENT STUDY Although we believe the findings reported in the original study (van den Berg et al., 2020) have the potential to contribute to both theory and treatment, there is a need for replication studies in general. Replication is a crucial cornerstone of science; for something to be counted as a scientific discovery, a finding needs to be repeatable (Zwaan et al., 2017). Also, scientific credibility requires obtaining as much evidence as possible and investigating whether the evidence matches or at least is consistent with existing theories (Ioannidis, 2012). Replication studies address this need. Finally, neglecting replication is conducive to the circulation of false research findings (Ioannidis, 2005), which in the case of research on the interrelatedness of dynamic risk factors, if and when they end up informing treatment and intervention approaches, impact both society’s safety and offenders’ lives (Badawi et al., 2020). Therefore, there is a clear and strong need for replication studies for research in men with a history of sexual offenses. The goal of this study is to replicate the findings of our original study (van den Berg et al., 2020). In addition, we statistically compared networks of dynamic risk factors found in the original study with those constructed using data from the replication study, which involved an independent sample of adult men with a history of sexual offenses. We hypothesize that the networks of dynamic risk factors constructed using data from two independent samples will be comparable, as reflected by (a) a similar network structure, (b) a similar global strength, (c) a similar ranking of the nodes strength centrality across networks, (d) similar adjacency matrices, and (e) similar communities. 4.2 METHOD 4.2.1 PARTICIPANTS Both the original and the replication study involved routine correctional samples of adult men charged or convicted for at least one sexually motivated offense in North America. Data from the original network analyses were collected between January 2001 and November 2005 as part of the dynamic supervision project (DSP; Hanson et al., 2007). Offenders participating in this project started a period of community supervision (probation or parole) in any of the Canadian provinces and territories and the USA states of Alaska and Iowa. Data used for the replication study were collected between 1st January 2005 and 4th June 2013 on individuals supervised in the community by the provincial corrections system of British Columbia (BC). In both samples (DSP N = 803; BC N = 4,511), recidivism data were derived from official criminal histories. Recidivism was operationalized in two ways: (a) Sexual recidivism - a charge or conviction for a sexual motivated reoffense - this category includes possession of child pornography and other noncontact sexual offenses; (b) violent recidivism (including sexual contact) - a charge or conviction for a violent reoffense involving direct confrontation with a victim.
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