Structured Sex Offender Treatment Review (SSOTR)

The SSOTR is an evaluator-administered instrument developed by Dr. Jim Tanner of KBsolutions in consultation with Stephen Brake Associates.  It is designed to track an adult or juvenile sex offender’s progress, or lack thereof, in over 30 treatment and supervision categories.  Each category has been identified by treatment and supervision professionals as an important treatment goal.  A category is scored as either “yes” or “no” according to whether the offender meets explicit criteria.

Version 3.0 of the Adult version of SSOTR has just been released.  This new version expands and clarifies some scoring categories and includes brief wording on how the SSOTR can be used in relationship with current sex offense specific treatment models (such as the Good Lives Model)

The SSOTR was originally developed as part of a research project for the 20^th Judicial District Probation Department in Boulder, Colorado.  The department was seeking a way to “map” an offender’s participation in treatment and the SSOTR provides such a map.

The SSOTR covers three main domains of an offender’s behavior:

     1.  Taking responsibility

     2.  Efforts taken by the offender to enhance public safety

     3.  Collateral changes in the offender’s lifestyle.

The SSOTR is not an assessment tool in the traditional sense but rather is a structured protocol designed to assist treatment teams in identifying “benchmark” goals in treatment and in helping teams identify and avoiding offender’s grooming, splitting, and misdirection over time.  By answering the SSOTR questions, professionals are taken through a structured review of the offender’s treatment and management processes.

Utilization of the SSOTR in the 20^th Judicial District in Colorado resulted in three major benefits:

     1.  Treatment teams were able to clarify goals and enhance their treatment plans

     2.  Discrepancies among treatment team members were clarified and better resolved

     3.  Treatment teams were better able to create a clear set of expectations for offenders

The SSOTR is not copyrighted and we (KBSolutions and Stephen Brake Associates) encourage agencies to utilize it.  We ask only that you give the developers credit and let us know that you are utilizing the instrument.  We welcome feedback and data so that we can continue to improve the instrument.

To download the Adult SSOTR click here.  To download the Juvenile SSOTR click here. (Adobe Acrobat required).