Evaluations and Services

These evaluations refer to post conviction sex offenses and current non-sex offenses with histories of sex offending. They are designed to identify a client's risk, treatment needs, responsively, protective factors, treatment recommendations, and opinions about level of supervision or containment to ensure community safety and be of maximum benefit to the client. 

These evaluations are similar to post-conviction evaluations and employ many of the same assessment procedures, except that estimates of risk may be less specifically defined since the use of actuarial risk assessments may not be appropriate. It is never assumed in pre-plea evaluations that any client is guilty of an offense which he or she denies committing. 

The purpose of a re-assessment or updated evaluation is to track changes in a client's risk over time and evaluate his or her progress in treatment. Suggestions are offered about changes that might be made in treatment or supervision that could assist the client to gain more from treatment and enhance public safety. 

We also use the Structured Sex Offender Treatment Review (SSOTR-3), an evaluator-administered instrument developed by Dr. Brake and Dr. Jim Tanner. It is designed to track an adult client's progress in 31 treatment and supervision categories (relevant accomplishments in treatment, level of responsibility, efforts taken by the offender to enhance public safety, and collateral changes in the offender's lifestyle). 

Internet sex offenses sometimes consist of people viewing such material but can also include instances in which people collect, share, distribute, and produce Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). They can also consist of people engaging in sex chats with children, arranging meetings with children for the purpose of having sex, and exposing themselves or sending nude images of themselves to children or unsuspecting adults.

These evaluations can be post-conviction, pre-plea, or re-assessment evaluations. They focus on analyses of digital sexual behaviors, behaviors indicative of a progression toward contact offenses, and an analysis of common risk factors. 

Ms. Sommers and Dr. Brake created the Internet Progression List to provide some clues about a client's potential progression from internet to contact offending. 

A Child Contact Screen is intended to serve as an addendum to sex offense-specific evaluations (post-conviction or pre-plea) and be completed at the time of the evaluation or shortly thereafter. It is intended to estimate the potential risk a convicted adult sex offender may pose to his or her own child. This screen considers information gathered from additional assessment instruments and interviews designed to explore more fully a client's sexual history, empathy, capacity for attachment, and relationships with his or her child. The screen also addresses family functioning through interviews with the client's partner or spouse. The screen also involves a polygraph test (administered by an outside agency). Dr. Brake assisted in the development of the CCS (and its predecessors, the Parental Risk Assessment and Child Contact Assessment). 

These evaluations provide information about mental status, psychological functioning, presence or absence of clinical disorders, cognitive functioning, and treatment needs.

We also offer consultation, training, and expert witness services.