Using Evidence to improve Sexual recidivism treatment
Trainers: Karl Hanson, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Date & Location: November 20th, 2026 12:00pm - 1:30pm over Zoom
Cost:$30 for WATSA/OATSA members/$50 for non members
Summary: Just because an intervention appears effective, that doesn’t make it so. The history of medicine is full of widely accepted interventions that were actually harmful. During my professional career, I have witnessed the rise and fall of many approaches to sexual recidivism treatment. Most of these changes have been motivated by niggling dissatisfactions with current practice combined with compelling arguments for innovative approaches. Research has played a limited role in these changes. This is understandable. The delay between treatment completion and sexual recidivism makes strong evaluations prohibitively expensive. Public attitudes limit the funding that is available to “improve treatment for sexual offenders”.
In this presentation I review what the available research evidence can contribute to the design of psychological interventions for persons with a history of sexual offending. In particular, I discuss the relative stability of personality and community adjustment, predictable changes of development during adulthood and advance age, empirically validated risk and protective factors for sexual recidivism, and changes in dynamic risk factors. I conclude by an appeal to treatment providers to adopt the practice of continuous evaluation, and to document their successes (and failures) in a way that contributes to cumulative knowledge.
R. Karl Hanson, Ph.D., C.Psych., is one of the leading researchers in the field of risk assessment and treatment for individuals with a history of crime and violence. Originally trained as a clinical psychologist, he was a researcher and research manager in the area of corrections and crime policy for Public Safety Canada between 1991 and 2017. Dr. Hanson has published more than 200 articles, book chapters and government reports, including several highly influential reviews. He is the lead author of several widely used risk tools for sexual recidivism, including Static-99R, Static-2002R, STABLE-2007 and ACUTE-2007. He has received career contribution awards from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, Public Safety Canada, the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders, and the Criminal Justice Section of the Canadian Psychological Association. He was an advisor to the Paraphilias working group for DSM-5, and author of Prediction Statistics for Psychological Assessment, published in 2022 by the American Psychological Association. Based in Ottawa, Canada, he is currently President of the not-for-profit organization SAARNA (Society for the Advancement of Actuarial Risk Need Assessment) and adjunct faculty in the psychology department of Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada).
This training will earn you 1.5 hours of CEUs
WATSA is a Washington State DOH approved CE provider. CE Hours earned at this training count towards hours needed to renew your SOTP credential and/or your underlying health care license. We are not an approved provider for organizations such as the APA, NASW, AAFT or NBCC.
Just because an intervention appears effective, that doesn’t make it so. The history of medicine is full of widely accepted interventions that were actually harmful. During my professional career, I have witnessed the rise and fall of many approaches to sexual recidivism treatment. Most of these changes have been motivated by niggling dissatisfactions with current practice combined with compelling arguments for innovative approaches. Research has played a limited role in these changes. This is understandable. The delay between treatment completion and sexual recidivism makes strong evaluations prohibitively expensive. Public attitudes limit the funding that is available to “improve treatment for sexual offenders”.
In this presentation I review what the available research evidence can contribute to the design of psychological interventions for persons with a history of sexual offending. In particular, I discuss the relative stability of personality and community adjustment, predictable changes of development during adulthood and advance age, empirically validated risk and protective factors for sexual recidivism, and changes in dynamic risk factors. I conclude by an appeal to treatment providers to adopt the practice of continuous evaluation, and to document their successes (and failures) in a way that contributes to cumulative knowledge.
Cost:
$30 for WATSA/OATSA members
$50 for Non-members