Epidemiology of French Sexual Offenders. A Cross-sectional Study

Risk of re-offending and associated factors of the participant

Sexual offender recidivism risk will be assessed using Static99 scale. The Static-99 (Hanson \& Thornton, 2000) is the most commonly used actuarial risk tool for estimating sexual offender recidivism risk.The risk assessment instrument Static-99R consists of ten items, where all but items 1 and 5 are dichotomous, resulting in 0 or 1 point being added to the total score. The total score, between -3 and 12, results in one out of five recommended risk levels: level I - very low risk (scores of -3 to -2), level II - below average risk (scores of -1 to 0), level III - average risk (scores of 1 to 3), level IVa - above average risk (scores of 4 to 5), and level IVb - well above average risk (scores of 6+).

Impulsivity of the participant

Impulsivity will be assessed using the UPPS-P ( Impulsive Behavior Scale) scale. Participants are asked to consider acts/incidents during the last 6 months when rating their behavior and attitudes on a 4-point scale, in which 1-Agree strongly, 2-Agree some, 3-Disagree some, 4-Disagree strongly. This is a 59-item scale measuring 5 impulsivity components: negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking.Scores are presented for each of five subscales, plus a total impulsivity score.In addition to the raw scores, the mean is calculated for the items on each subscale, from 1 to 4, where 1 indicates that the respondent did not endorse impulsive answers, and 4 indicates a high level of self-reported impulsivity.

Cognition of the participant

Cognition will be assessed using The Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS). The PCRS consists of 30 items, each scored on a scale of 1 to 5, making the total score range from 30 to 150. The higher scores indicate greater competency in the list of skills on the test.

Emotional status of the participant

Emotional status will be assessed using theTAS-20 (Toronto Alexithymia Scale) scale. The TAS-20 is a self-report scale that is comprised of 20 items. Items are rated using a 5-point Likert scale whereby 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. There are 5 items that are negatively keyed (items 4, 5, 10, 18 and 19). The total alexithymia score is the sum of responses to all 20 items.The TAS-20 uses cutoff scoring: equal to or less than 51 = non-alexithymia, equal to or greater than 61 = alexithymia. Scores of 52 to 60 = possible alexithymia.

Diagnosis of the participant

Diagnosis will be assessed using the PCL-R scale (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). The scale includes 2 factors. Factor 1 is a measure of Emotional Detachment (e.g., superficial charm, manipulativeness, shallow affectivity, absence of guilt or empathy). Factor 2 is a measure of Antisocial Behavior (deviance from an early age, aggression, impulsivity, irresponsibility, proneness to boredom). There is also a total score. A total score of 10-19 diagnoses an individual as midly psychopathic. A score of 20-29 diagnoses them as moderately psychopathic. a score of 30-40 diagnoses them as severely psychopathic.