Comparing Indian and White men charged or convicted of sexual offences on the Static-99R and STABLE-2007*

ABSTRACT

Concerns have been raised regarding the cross-cultural validity of risk assessment scales. This study compared the risk and need profiles of Indian (South Asian) and White men charged or convicted of sexual offences. It also examined the predictive accuracy of Static-99R and STABLE-2007, and the constructs of sexual criminality, general criminality, and youthful stranger aggression for violent and any recidivism. The study sample consisted of 2765 White and 158 Indian men supervised by British Columbia (B.C.) Corrections between 2005 and 2013. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to examine group differences between Indian and White offenders. Cox regression analysis was used to examine predictive accuracy. Compared to White men, Indian men demonstrated generally lower risk except that Indian men were more likely to have unrelated and stranger victims and demonstrate hostility towards women. Both Static-99R and STABLE-2007, and the main risk constructs significantly predicted violent and any criminal recidivism for Indian men. Static-99R and STABLE-2007 appear supported for use with men of Indian ancestry. Plausible explanations for the study findings as well as further implications for research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Static-99R
• STABLE-2007
• risk assessment
• cross-cultural validity
• Indian men

Disclosure statement

L. Maaike Helmus is a certified trainer on Static-99R and STABLE-2007. The copyright for these measures is held by the Government of Canada and the authors/trainers do not receive royalties for their use, although they occasionally receive remuneration for trainings or consultations.

Notes

1 Note that this is the sample used for the current study.

2 The sample for this study came from the same larger sample as that of the current study.