Research Committee

The Research Committee promotes statewide research in the field of sexual offending. Each year CCOSO awards a $2000 grant to help support the effort of a researcher who is a member in good standing of CCOSO. The Research Committee oversees the grant, reviews proposals, and recommends a recipient to the Board.

The 2011 CCOSO Research Grant has been suspended due to lack of funding. A notice will be placed on this website once the CCOSO Board has reinstated the grant. If you have questions, please contact: Lucinda A. Rasmussen, Ph.D., LCSW (Chair of the Research Committee) at (619) 594-6459 or at lucindarasmussen@cox.net.

 

2009 Recipient of CCOSO Research Grant

The CCOSO Board and the Research Committee are pleased to announce that the 2009 CCOSO Research Grant has been awarded to L.C. Miccio-Fonseca, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Director of Clinic for the Sexualities in San Diego. The grant will help support the cross-validation research for a risk assessment tool constructed by Dr. Miccio-Fonseca, MEGA^♪ (Multiplex Empirically Guided Inventory of Ecological Aggregates for Assessing Sexually Abusive Adolescents and Children (Ages 19 and Under) (Miccio-Fonseca, 2006).

 

MEGA^♪ was recently validated on a U.S./Canadian sample of 1184 youth (males and females of all ages, including youth who are low intellectual functioning) and is currently being cross-validated on a new sample from outpatient, inpatient, day treatment, residential, and correctional settings. The tool provides a multidimensional assessment of risk through seven ecological aggregates (domains) and four risk scales.

 

Dr. Miccio-Fonseca’s research in constructing, validating, and cross-validating MEGA^♪ is consistent with the new standard in the field for evidence-based practice. MEGA^♪ assesses dynamic risk factors and provides an empirical means of following youth over time and evaluating their progress, as related to increased or decreased risk. The CCOSO Board is pleased to support this research because ultimately, more accurate risk assessments make our communities safer.

 

The Board has requested that Dr. Miccio-Fonseca present the preliminary findings of the MEGA^♪ cross-validation research at next year’s CCOSO Conference in May 2010, as well as report her findings in the Newsletter. 

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 explored usefulness of the Abel system for evaluating persons with developmental disabilities who have sexual behavior problems.