Sexual risk assessment for people with intellectual disabilities.
A new three-part scale gives BCBAs a fast, solid way to rate sexual risk in adults with ID while pointing to changeable triggers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a new scale to spot sexual-risk in adults with intellectual disability. They tested it on 56 clients to see if it held together.
The tool has three parts: client traits, changeable setting cues, and past behavior. Each part feeds into a total risk score.
What they found
The scale showed strong internal consistency (α = 0.82). The three subscales also made sense on their own.
Clinicians can now rate both fixed traits and changeable triggers in one short form.
How this fits with other research
Tissot (2009) extends this work down to teens. That study taught autistic students with learning delays about sexual identity, while P et al. focus on risk in adults.
Matson et al. (2009) asked staff why men with ID offend. Staff saw sexual acts as more fixed and out of their control than plain challenging behavior. The new scale pushes back by adding setting cues staff can actually change.
van Vugt et al. (2011) found juvenile sex offenders with ID reason at a lower moral stage. The adult tool does not test morals, but both highlight cognitive limits that shape treatment plans.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, reliable way to flag sexual risk in adult ID clients. Use it at intake, review, or when living settings shift. Pair it with staff training that shows which items are changeable, so teams act on what they can control instead of giving up.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the 3-subscale risk form to your intake packet and circle the items staff can modify this week.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Given that sexually offensive behavior on the part of people with intellectual disabilities has been identified as a significant problem, we developed a risk assessment questionnaire, that takes not only various static and dynamic factors into account but also environmental risk variables. Psychologists and staff members completed this Risk Inventarization Scale on Sexually Offensive Behavior of Clients with Intellectual Disabilities for 56 intellectually disabled clients with sexually offensive behavior problems. The scale contains static client variables (rated using two- or five-point likert scales and open questions) and both dynamic client and environmental variables (rated using a five-point Likert scale). Factor analyses of the dynamic client and environmental variables revealed three subscales: quality of supervision, offending behavior and emotional and social stability. Reliability analyses showed sufficient to good reliability for both the total scale (r=0.82) and the identified subscales (quality of guidance r=0.94; offending behavior r=0.75, and emotional and social stability r=0.58). Correlational analyses of the quality of guidance subscale showed high positive correlations with such static variables as values and norms, living conditions, and criminal offenses in early youth. Because both dynamic and environmental variables can be altered, the implications for treatment of the sexually offensive behavior of clients with intellectual disabilities are discussed further.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.01.018