Centre (n=191) is a maximum security provincial cor-
rectional facility located in Ontario, Canada. The Oak
Ridge Division of the Penetanguishene Mental Health
Centre (n=142) in Ontario is a maximum security men-
tal health center. The STATIC–99 was subsequently
cross-validated on 563 sex offenders released from Her
Majesty’s Prison Service (England and Wales) in 1979
and followed for 16 years.
The predictive validity of the instrument was mea-
sured by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)
curve. The STATIC–99 showed moderate predictive
accuracy for both sexual recidivism (r=0.33; ROC
area =0.71) and violent recidivism (r=0.32; ROC
area =0.69).
The STATIC–99 includes 10 items that are scored as
a 0 if not present and a 1 if present, except for the item
prior sex offenses, which is scored 0 to 3. The items on
the STATIC–99 include young age, single (ever lived
with a lover for at least 2 years), index nonsexual vio-
lence (conviction), prior nonsexual violence (convic-
tion), prior sex offenses, prior sentencing dates, any
convictions for noncontact sex offenses, unrelated vic-
tims, stranger victims, and male victims. The score on
the STATIC–99 can range from 0 to 12 and risk classi-
fications include low, medium-low, medium-high, and
high risk. Each risk level is associated with a proba-
bility of sexual re-offense for the study sample for
5, 10, and 15 years. Since the development of the
STATIC–99, it has been repeatedly cross-validated in
multiple jurisdictions and countries.The STATIC–2002
In 2002, R. Karl Hanson and David Thornton revised
the STATIC–99 in an effort to make the instrument sim-
pler, more clinically applicable, and easier to score. The
scale construction was designed to maximize the pre-
diction of sexual recidivism. The selection of variables
for the STATIC–2002 was guided by established
research on factors that predict sexual recidivism as well
as other empirically developed sex offender risk scales.
The authors also included a number of exploratory vari-
ables that were supported by the constructs they were
attempting to assess. Twenty-two individual variables
with a simple bivariate relationship to sexual recidivism
were organized into five content areas, including age at
release, persistence of sex offending, deviant sexual
interests, range of available victims, and general crimi-
nality. Multivariate analyses were used to determine
whether the subscale added incrementally beyond thesubscales already considered. Using Cox regression,
each subscale was statistically weighted for its contribu-
tion to sexual recidivism.
The resulting scale was developed on a more diverse
group of samples than the STATIC–99 and included two
of the three developmental samples of the STATIC–99—
Institut Philippe Pinel (n = 363) and Millbrook
Correctional Centre (n = 186)—as well as three
Canadian Federal Samples (n=1229)—the California
Sex Offender Treatment and Evaluation Project sample
(n = 1137), the Special Sex Offender Sentencing
Alternative (SSOSA) sample from Washington (n=
587), and the Manitoba Probation sample (n=202). The
STATIC–99/STATIC–2002 (ROC area =.71) showed
levels of predictive accuracy for sexual recidivism simi-
lar to the STATIC–99 (ROC area =.69) for the prediction
of sexual recidivism. The potential advantages of the
STATIC–2002 over the STATIC–99 include improved
prediction of violent recidivism over the STATIC–99,
less variability than the STATIC–99 across settings, and
more meaningful content areas when applied to clinical
cases. Replication studies need to be conducted on large
samples before it is possible to associate specific risk
levels to specific ranges of scores as provided by the
STATIC–99. The STATIC–2002 is a new instrument that
needs to be replicated with independent data sets before
it is appropriate for wide clinical use.
The items in the STATIC–2002 include the follow-
ing: age at release; the persistence of sexual offending
cluster with subsections including (a) prior sentencing
occasions for sexual offenses, (b) arrests for sexual
offenses as both an adult and a juvenile, and (c) rate of
sexual offenses; the deviant sexual interests cluster with
subsections including (a) any convictions for noncon-
tact sexual offenses, (b) any male victims, and (c) two
or more victims below the age of 12 with one victim
unrelated; the relationship to victims of sexual offenses
cluster including subsections (a) any unrelated victims
and (b) any stranger victims; the general criminality
cluster including subsections (a) any arrest/sentencing
occasions, (b) any breach of conditional release,
(c) years free prior to index offense, and (d) any prior
conviction for nonsexual violence.Amy PhenixSee alsoMinnesota Sex Offender Screening Tool–Revised
(MnSOST–R); Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense
Recidivism (RRASOR); Risk Assessment Approaches;
Sex Offender Risk Appraisal Guide (SORAG); Sexual
Violence Risk–20 (SVR–20)STATIC–99 and STATIC–2002 Instruments——— 761S-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:44 PM Page 761