Advances and Current Developments in Recidivism and Risk Assessment Research for Individuals Convicted of Sexual Offenses
Max Planck Guest Lecture
Directions
- Date: Apr 29, 2026
- Time: 05:00 PM - 07:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Prof. Dr. Martin Rettenberger (Centre for Criminology, Wiesbaden, and Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz)
- Prof. Dr. Martin Rettenberger is Director of the Centre for Criminology (Kriminologische Zentralstelle – KrimZ) in Wiesbaden and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Since 2025, he has served as President of the International Association for the Treatment of Sexual Offenders (IATSO) and as Chair of the “Psychology and Law” section of the German Society for Psychology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychologie – DGPs). He is Editor-in-Chief of the PsychOpen GOLD open-access journal “Sexual Offending: Theories, Research, and Prevention” (SOTRAP) and serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals. He has published more than 250 research articles, book chapters, and books on risk assessment, sexual and violent offending, and other aspects and topics in criminology and forensic psychology. As an expert witness, he prepares risk assessment and treatment planning reports for courts and correctional and forensic facilities and regularly serves as a media expert on crime-related topics.
- Location: Freiburg/Germany, Fürstenbergstr. 19
- Room: Seminar room (F 113) | Guests are welcome; please register
- Host: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law
- Contact: c.hillemanns@csl.mpg.de
The first part of the lecture offers a brief overview of current international findings on recidivism rates of sexual (re-)offending, followed by an introduction to the main methods and models used in recidivism risk assessment. Next, selected recent developments and research findings across these methodological groups are presented. The lecture also examines the relevance of mental health diagnoses for predicting reoffense and the application of machine learning algorithms in applied recidivism risk assessment settings. Finally, it addresses the specific challenges and potential solutions in the comparatively new field of recidivism risk assessment for digital sexual violent behaviors (e.g., sexual offenses involving the use and/or production of Child Sexual Exploitation Material [CSEM] or cybergrooming).
- External guests – Please register your participation with conference@csl.mpg.de.