Individualized treatment of sexual offenders with an intellectual or developmental disability

Douglas P. Boer

Over the past 6 years, the number of referrals to the presenter of sexual offenders with an intellectual disability or developmental disability (ID/DD) has increased in the Australian Capital Territory, but given a concomitant increase in the number of funding bodies and agencies involved in housing and coordinating the care of such individuals, the utility of group programmes has become increasing problematic. Hence, an individualized sexual offender programme (I-SOP) for sexual offenders with an ID/DD was developed by the presenter based largely on the Good Lives Model and the Relapse Prevention framework. While the I-SOP is admittedly primarily repackaging of the best aspects of both models, it has proven to be a successful means of treating both deniers with an ID or DD, sexual offenders with very low levels of ID or unusual combinations of ID or DD diagnoses.

Professor Boer began working at the University of Canberra in September of 2012 after 7 years at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) where he also taught in the Clinical Psychology Programme. Prior to 2006 he worked for the Correctional Service of Canada for about 15 years. He has about 110 publications including articles, book chapters, edited books and test manuals. He helped to co-author the “Sexual Violence Risk – 20 (SVR-20, 1997 and SVR-20 V2, 2017) and the “Assessment of Risk and Manageability for Individuals with Developmental and Intellectual Limitations who Offend Sexually (ARMIDILO-S)”, and the “G” version of the ARMIDILO. Most recently, he has been involved in designing a supervision triage tool for the Victoria Police (the SHARP) and other assessment research with Defense sector in Australia. He also serves on a number of editorial boards, including the “British Journal of Forensic Practice” and the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. Professor Boer is also a past President of the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders (IATSO).