Open AccessMEGA♪: Empirical Findings on the Preternatural: Sexually Violent and Predatory Sexually Violent Youth
Author(s) -
L. C. Miccio-Fonseca
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of child and adolescent trauma
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1936-153X
pISSN - 1936-1521
DOI - 10.1007/s40653-018-0242-8
Subject(s) - psychology , poison control , normative , demography , medicine , clinical psychology , environmental health , political science , sociology , law
Applied are empirical findings from two major studies employing the ecologically framed MEGA ♪ risk assessment tool: MEGA ♪ Combined Samples Studies ( N = 3901 [1979-2017] (Miccio-Fonseca 2017a, d) and MEGA ♪ Combined Cross Validation Studies ( N = 2717). Samples consisted of male, female, and transgender-female sexually abusive youth, ages 4-19, including youth with low intellectual functioning of borderline or low average. Findings further support a previously presented nomenclature identifying two subsets overlooked by most contemporary risk assessment tools: sexually violent and predatory sexually violent youth (Miccio-Fonseca and Rasmussen Journal of Aggression Maltreatment & Trauma, 18 , 106-128, 2009, 2014). MEGA ♪ Studies provided normative data, with cut-off scores (calibrated) according to age and gender, establishing four risk levels: Low, Moderate, High, and Very High . The fourth risk level, Very High, sets MEGA ♪ apart from other risk assessment tools for sexually abusive youth, which are limited to three risk levels. Very High risk level definitively identifies the most dangerous youth, thus empirically supporting the nomenclature of sexually violent and predatory sexually violent youth.