Abstract
The attitudes of both the public and of clinicians are important to consider when studying the reentry of sexual offenders into society. Punitive public attitudes drive the continued use of ineffective policies like registries and residential restrictions, and experts must assess risk to decide what level of supervision and control, from none to civil commitment, to recommend upon release from prison. This study investigated whether actuarial feedback can change participant attitudes about recidivism risk and disposition. Members of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) and a sample from MTurk completed a survey using vignettes to assess recidivism risk and dispositional outcomes of individuals who had sexually offended and varied in their risk to reoffend. They then were given feedback about the offender’s Static-99R risk level and were asked to adjust their ratings. We found that ATSA members were more accurate and less biased than the MTurk sample, selecting lower risk levels and less punitive dispositions on average. Both groups initially differentiated among offenders at different risk levels and were able to use actuarial feedback to adjust their ratings. Implications for public policy, including the need to use actuarials instead of clinical judgment, are discussed.