Abstract
Factor analyses of actuarials for adults who sexually offend have yielded consistent core factors (e.g., Brouillette-Alarie, Babchishin, Hanson, & Helmus, 2016) that correlate with latent psychological characteristics of adults who sexually offend (ASOs). Although the body of work investigating adult actuarials continues to grow, parallel analyses of actuarials for juveniles who sexually offend (JSOs) are lacking. The present study explored the latent psychological constructs in the single existing empirically derived actuarial that has been validated for juveniles – the Juvenile Sexual Offense Recidivism Risk Assessment Tool (JSORRAT-II). Factor analysis of the 12-item JSORRAT-II yielded four factors that suggest potential underlying dynamic traits present in JSOs – Sexual Offending History, General Criminality, Familial Abuse, and Educational Disruptions. The four JSORRAT-II factors were validated using measures of the dynamic traits hypothesized to covary with each factor. Results of these analyses suggest that, unlike the adult actuarial measures, the static measures of the JSORRAT-II may not capture latent psychological constructs. Clinicians and forensic evaluators must proceed with caution when using this measure in planning interventions, because although the JSORRAT-II reflects static, immutable historical events in the youths’ lives, it apparently does not map well onto identifiable, mutable dynamic traits that are useful for treatment planning.