Criteria for criminal responsibility in sexual offenders

Although expert reports play an important role in criminal trials, they may be partly based on criteria that are influenced by the expert's subjective evaluation. BRIKEN and MULLER (2014) thus recommended to use standardized items of prognostic instruments in order to evaluate criminal responsibility of sex offenders with paraphilic disorders. They suggested that this may improve the transparency and comprehensibility of the assessment procedures in expert testimonies. In pilot study 1, we tested the feasibility and reliability of the suggested criteria using anonymized expert reports. We calculate dinter-rater-reliability for all criteria as well as for the evaluation of criminal responsibility. Results of the ratings were compared with the original evaluation of the experts responsible for the reports. Study 1 yielded poor results and thus a second pilot study was conducted to test the criteria after thorough modification. Notably, the feasibility and reliability of the revised criteria improved through modification. Overall results of both pilot studies indicate that the recommended criteria could be helpful for evaluating criminal responsibility of sex offenders.