Research Committee

The Research Committee promotes research in the field of sexual offending. Efforts to facilitate statewide research projects will be a focus of the committee. To this end, CCOSO has established an annual grant to help support research on sexual offending. All activities involved in the process of this grant, including the review of proposals and selection of the recipient, fall within the purview of the research committee.

Research Grant Guidelines:

1. Applicants must be active members of the CCOSO in good standing.

2.  The proposed research addresses an important aspect of sexual offending.

3.  Preference will be given to scientific research that is data driven rather than theoretical or conceptual papers.

4.  A research proposal, consisting of a problem statement, purpose and significance of the study, hypotheses or research questions, and methodology must be submitted no later than January 1 of each year.

5.  Following careful review of all submitted proposals, the Research Committee will select what it considers the most worthwhile proposal and convey it decision to the applicants.

6.  The recipent will provide a written summary of his or her research findings to the board within one month of completing the project.  In addition, the recipent will present his or her findings a the next annual CCOSO Conference.

First Research Grant Award

Mr. Gerry Blasingame, MA, was awarded CCOSO’s first research grant at the Atrium Hotel in Irvine, California, the site of the Fourth Annual Training Conference, in May of 2001.

The title of Mr. Blasingame’s proposal is: “Assessment of developmentally disabled sexual offenders and/or those with sexual misconduct problems using the Abel Assessment for sexual interest‘.” The study will explore usefulness of the Abel system for evaluating persons with developmental disabilities who have sexual behavior problems.

Although non-experimental, Mr. Blasingame’s proposal was selected because this subject has been largely neglected in the literature. The $1000.00 grant will be awarded upon the completion of the study