The Role Of Protective Factors In Best Practices For Preventing Sexual Re-Offense: A Conversation With Sharon Kelley, David Thornton, and Gwenda Willis Feature Image

The Role Of Protective Factors In Best Practices For Preventing Sexual Re-Offense: A Conversation With Sharon Kelley, David Thornton, and Gwenda Willis

Recorded On:   February 15, 2022
Duration:  1 Hour
Audience:

This webinar is for mental health, correctional, and legal professionals working to prevent sexual re-offenses.

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Positive, strengths-based interventions are increasingly popular with clinicians seeking to help individuals who have committed sexual offenses avoid reoffending. Yet assessment tools designed to evaluate risk, identify treatment needs, and assess response to treatment remain focused on the negative: what has gone wrong (static risk factors) and what is going wrong (dynamic risk factors). In mid-2017, Gwenda Willis, David Thornton, Sharon Kelley, and Michel de Vries Robbé embarked on a research program to develop a structured assessment of protective factors against sexual reoffending for use alongside commonly used risk assessment tools.

In this webinar, Gwen, David, and Sharon talk about the journey leading to the development of the Structured Assessment of Protective Factors against Sexual Offending (SAPROF-SO), Version 1, and why they believe best practices should include consideration of both risk factors and strengths-based, protective factors.

Who's Presenting


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Sharon Kelley, PsyD

Forensic Psychologist 
Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center

Dr. Kelley has been completing risk assessments in the field of sexual offending for the past 20 years. She is currently employed as a forensic psychologist with the Sand Ridge Evaluation Unit in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to this, she maintains a private practice completing evaluations and trainings, and she has volunteer positions on the ATSA Board of Directors and the ATSA journal’s editorial board. She is a licensed psychologist in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and California. Both with her practical work and research projects, she is interested in empirically-based risk assessments, best evaluation practices, and understanding evaluator decision-making.

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David Thornton PhD

Psychologist
Private Practice

Dr. Thornton is a psychologist in private practice based in Wisconsin. He is licensed to practice as a psychologist in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the U.S., as well as in the U.K. He was a research director for Wisconsin’s program for sexually violent persons for three years and previously was the treatment director for that program for over a decade. He has published on evidence-based standards for effective correctional programs and on the importance of therapist style in the provision of treatment designed to reduce sexual recidivism risk. He has contributed to the development of static actuarial risk assessment instruments such as the Static-99/R, Static-2002/R, and Risk Matrix 2000 and to more psychological forms of assessment such as the assessment of long-term vulnerabilities and dynamic protective factors relevant to sexual offending. David Thornton has published over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles.

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Gwenda M. Willis, PhD, PGDipClinPsyc

Clinical Psychologist
University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Willis is an Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Registered Clinical Psychologist. Her research and clinical interests focus on strengths-based approaches to psychological assessment and therapy in forensic/correctional settings, trauma-informed care, and sexual abuse prevention. Dr. Willis provides training and consultation to clinicians internationally, including in the application of the contemporary Good Lives Model of rehabilitation. Dr. Willis has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and her research has been widely cited. She led the development and initial validation of the SAPROF-SO with co-authors Drs David Thornton, Sharon Kelley, and Michiel de Vries Robbé.