Scientific Evolution of Clinical and Risk Assessment of Sexually Abusive Youth: A Comprehensive Review of Empirical Tools.

Risk assessment of sexually abusive youth is a specialty, which ideally includes a clinical assessment (e.g., psychological evaluation) utilizing a validated risk assessment tool. This article reviews tools for assessing sexual improprieties and/or sexually abusive behaviors in youth: , and and a clinical assessment tool, . Untested, structured, clinical checklists with face validity, and , are included. The authors also highlight clinical dilemmas using "utility tools" (i.e., polygraph and plethysmograph) with sexually abusive youth. The comprehensive review sustains a twenty-first-century of inclusive ecologically based, developmentally and gender-sensitive assessment tools that definitively and accurately assess risk and protective factors of sexually abusive youth.