Moderating effects of age, employment status and level of education on the predictive utility of the LSI-R for sexual offenders

Abstract

Using a Midwestern sample of sex offenders, the current study reports findings on the utility of the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) in predicting recidivism for offenders with a history of sexual crimes. The current study includes data from a sample of 250 sexual offenders over a 36-month period. This study aims to investigate how three variables – level of education, age and employment status – correlate to recidivism, and if they moderate the effectiveness of the tool in predicting future offending. This study found a statistically significant relationship between total LSI-R score and general recidivism, supporting the predictive utility of the LSI-R for sex offenders. These findings imply the need for intervention programmes focused on young sex offenders to reduce their potential for reoffending. The present study contributes to the available research by increasing the knowledge regarding sexual offender recidivism rates. Keywords: Sex offenders, recidivism, age, level of education, employment