Just as no competent surgeon would operate without first examining the patient, so no community based sex offender treatment program should offer treatment without first doing a thorough evaluation. Doing so is a step toward ensuring community safety. Such an evaluation consists of a clinical interview, the administration of inventories that measure anxiety and depression (Beck Inventories), personality and intelligence tests (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III, Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-2), measures for sexual interest (the Abel Assessment for sexual interest-3) and estimated risk to reoffend (STATIC-2002).
The information obtained from the evaluation answers:
- The offender's estimated risk to recidivate
- Whether he has a major mental illness
- If he has deviant sexual interests
- His amenability to treatment
- Whether he requires medications
- His level of intelligence
Bypassing an assessment and simply putting an offender directly into treatment is not helpful to the offender, to those who supervise him and ultimately to the safety of the community.