PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shoba Sreenivasan
AU  - Linda E. Weinberger
AU  - Allen Frances
AU  - Sarah Cusworth-Walker
TI  - Alice In Actuarial-Land: Through the Looking Glass of Changing Static-99 Norms
DP  - 2010 Sep 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 400--406
VI  - 38
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/38/3/400.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/38/3/400.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2010 Sep 01; 38
AB  - The Static-99, an actuarial rating method, is employed to conduct sexual violence risk assessment in legal contexts. The proponents of the Static-99 dismiss clinical judgment as not empirical. Two elements must be present to apply an actuarial risk model to a specific individual: sample representativeness and uniform measurement of outcome. This review demonstrates that both of these elements are lacking in the normative studies of the Static-99 and its revised version, the Static-99R. Studies conducted since the publication of the Static-99 have not replicated the original norms. Sexual recidivism rates for the same Static-99 score vary widely, from low to high, depending on the sample used. A hypothetical case example is presented to illustrate how the solitary application of the Static-99 or Static-99R recidivism rates to the exclusion of salient clinical factors for identifying sexual dangerousness can have serious consequences for public safety.