Sexual Abuse, Ahead of Print.
Although many instruments have been validated to assess risk of sexual recidivism among men, no similar tool exists for women who have sexually offended. As a result, some jurisdictions use male-based instruments to assess women despite the lack of validation research examining the predictive utility for this subgroup. This study examined the utility of the Static-99R in predicting sexual recidivism among women. Based on a sample of 739 women convicted of sexual offenses in Texas, findings show that the total score was not significantly associated with sexual recidivism. When looking at individual items, other than a history of prior sexual offenses and noncontact sexual offenses, no item of the Static-99R was significantly associated with sexual recidivism among women. Furthermore, only three items (female victims/solo offender, 4+ sentencing dates, and having not lived with a romantic other for 2+ years) were significantly associated with nonsexual recidivism. These findings indicate that the Static-99R is not suitable to assess risk of recidivism among women convicted of sexual offenses.