Risk Domain 7: Social Relations and Intimacy

Below are the report responses of an individual who has sexually offended. First, his MIDSA responses for each subcomponent of the Social Relations and Intimacy domain are presented as they appear in the report, followed by an interpretation in red of each subcomponent. At the end of the subcomponents is an overall integrative interpretation in red.

The respondent reports that in both adolescence and adulthood he has had close and casual friends of both sexes. His descriptions of his activities with these friends and the amount of time that he has spent with them each week, suggests that these friendships were somewhat superficial.

He also reported that as an adolescent he had relatively long-lasting romantic relationships with females. As an adult he married at age 29 and lived with his wife for 3 to 5 years. This relationship is sufficient to avoid being penalized on actuarials and dynamic risk instruments, but the quality of this relationship and his other relationships is not evident from these data.

The Intimacy scales expand and deepen the prior information on social relationships. The respondent’s adolescent relationships were low-average in adolescence (> 38% of ACCs* and > 51% of ASOs**). In adulthood this intimacy declined (> 13% of ACCs and > 28% of ASOs). His romantic relationships also declined from a high level in adolescence (> 78% of ACCs and > 84% of ASOs) to an average level in adulthood (> 49% of ACCs and > 55% of ASOs).

Overview of the Entire Social Relationships and Intimacy Domain

Overall, these data, especially the Intimacy scales, suggest that the respondent had some competence in friendships and romantic capacities in adolescence that declined in adulthood. Although in adulthood the respondent has the minimum level of interpersonal, romantic behavior to avoid higher scores on actuarials and dynamic risk instruments, significant therapeutic work will be required to turn his interpersonal behavior into a strong protective factor.

*  ACC = Adult Community Control Group.

**ASO = Adults who have Sexually Offended.