Risk of Sexual Violence
Specialised Assessments & Evaluations
CFN Limited undertakes specialist risk assessments of individuals who have admitted to or allegedly engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviours. A battery of psychological and psychophysiological tests is used to assess the individual's psychosexual functioning and risk of sexually violent recidivism. CFN Limited has at its disposal the latest instruments including penile plethysmography, and computerised polygraph examinations.
Such reports are prepared for Criminal Courts, Solicitors and Barristers, CAFCASS workers and guardians, the Probation and Prison Service, Health and Mental Health Services, Voluntary organisations and Charities, Youth Offending Teams and Young Offender Institutions. The interview and assessment usually take approximately eight hours to complete, followed by a period of time for actual report writing. The report detailing the individual’s risk level and recommendations for management and placement/custody will normally be produced within three weeks of the initial interviews.
Our reports cover the following aspects of the individual offender concerned: sexual arousal/interests using penile plethysmography (using a standardised visual stimuli set developed by Pacific Psychological Assessment Corporation – Not Real People, & Marshall Audio Stimuli Set) ; an assessment of personality/psychopathology; sexual thoughts/behaviours/fantasies; cognitive distortions which relate to various offence behaviours; an assessment of intellectual and memory functioning (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third Edition, Wechsler Memory Scale – Third Edition, National Adult Reading Test - Revised); neuropsychological assessments (D-KEFS Executive Function System); assessments for co-morbid disorders (Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scales, Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) Alcohol Use Inventory, DAST-20); and assessment of risk of sexual violence (The Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol, Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), Hare Psychopathy Checklist – Revised Youth Version (PCL:YV), Sexual Violence Risk – 20, and the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide (VRAG), Static-99).