The Wisconsin Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (WI-ATSA) 2019 Conference
The Wisconsin Chapter of ATSA invites you to an affordable training opportunity covering a variety of innovative research, treatment, and public policy topics.
June 13 & 14, 2019
8:00 am – 4:00 pm
Goodman Community Center – Brassworks
214 Waubesa St., Madison, WI
Registration Fee: $249
Fee includes registration, lunch on both days, and 12 CEUs.
Registration is Closed
Hotel Information
WI-ATSA has secured a discounted rate at Hotel Indigo:Madison Downtown. You must reserve your room by May 10, 2019 for the discount. A shuttle will be available to the conference site. Visit the below link for details and to book your reservation.
WI-ATSA Annual Conference 2019 Room Block
Schedule, Featured Topics, and Speakers
Thursday, June 13th
8:00 am – Registration and Breakfast
8:30 am – Ryan Shields—Preventing Child Sexual Abuse: Perspectives from Public Health
This workshop examine the scope of child sexual abuse in the United States, with a particular focus on adolescent sexual offending, and critiques current approaches to
addressing sexual harm. Then, I present the public health approach to violence prevention and apply its principles to child sexual abuse. We close with a discussion of best practices, and promising developments, in child sexual abuse prevention.
Speaker Profile
Ryan T. Shields, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is the former Associate Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His scholarship centers on the intersection of criminology, criminal justice, and public health. His recent work has examined policies aimed at youth who have sexually offended, such as juvenile transfer to adult court and sex offender registration and notification policies. He is also currently leading a project to develop an online prevention intervention for adolescents with a sexual interest in children.
11:45 am – Lunch Provided
12:45 pm – Michael Caldwell—The Redemption of Adolescents Adjudicated for Sexual Offenses
How long does an individual who was adjudicated for sexual misconduct as an adolescent have to be offense free before they are no higher risk than a non-offender? Recent research has established that static risk of violence erodes over time as the person is free of repeated sexual misconduct. The “redemption threshold” has been defined as the point at which a group of individuals adjudicated for sexual violence are no higher risk for sexual recidivism than are groups of individuals adjudicated for non-sexual misconduct. This symposium will describe a study of 2000 juveniles followed for up to 23 years to determine the decline in risk over time. The study examined how long an individual needs to be offense free to pose not greater risk for sexual misconduct than the average adolescent who was adjudicated for non- sexual misconduct.
Speaker Profile
Michael F. Caldwell, Psy.D. is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and a Senior Staff Psychologist at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, and serves as President of the Wisconsin Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. Dr. Caldwell has conducted research into risk assessment methods and the effectiveness of treatment interventions. He is a Co-Investigator with the MIND Research Network, and has served as a consultant to the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Juvenile Justice, and the National Academy of Sciences Sackler International Scientific Forum on Neuroscience and the Law, Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law at Arizona State University, the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas, the Mitchell Hamlin School of Law in St. Paul, the University of Oklahoma among many others. He has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters related to risk assessment and treatment of violent adolescent delinquents.
2:30 pm – Dawn Pflugradt—Female Sexual Offenders
As compared to male sexual offenders, research on female sexual offenders is limited. The primary explanations for the limitations have been the low prevalence of female sexual offending and the low base-rates for sexual recidivism. Conducting risk and treatment needs assessments for female offenders is becoming increasingly common. Whereas there are several empirically derived instruments to estimate recidivism risk for male sexual offenders, there are currently no validated risk assessment instruments for use with female sexual offenders. In addition, research on dynamic factors associated with recidivism is just beginning to emerge. Female sexual offenders exhibit individual psychological differences that influence their risk of committing future sexual offenses. As a result, determination of absolute recidivism risk and treatment needs for female offenders requires the use of structured professional judgment focusing on individual characteristics. This presentation describes the use of an individualistic approach to evaluate female sexual offenders in terms of their risk and their treatment needs.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Pflugradt received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2008. She received an additional graduate degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Clinical Bioethics in 2014. She is currently a Licensed Psychologist in the State of Wisconsin performing forensic and clinical work. She is employed by the Department of Health Services and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections conducting forensic risk evaluations. She also has a private practice and holds a position as an Associate Professor at the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology, where she teaches Ethics and heads the Human Research Subjects Committee. Dr. Pflugradt is a certified STATIC-99R trainer and a certified STABLE/ACUTE trainer. In addition to her clinical and teaching duties, she conducts research and regularly presents at international conferences her research findings related to criminality, risk assessment and treatment of violence.
Friday, June 14th
8:00 am – Breakfast
8:30 am – Nancy Raymond—Understanding and Treating Impulses, Urges, and Fantasies
This workshop will explore the factors that have been found to drive the urges to engage in maladaptive sexual behavior and difficulties with impulse control in a recently completed study of hypersexuality. Drawing from this understanding of underlying cognitive and psychophysiological mechanisms, we will discuss the medications that are potentially effective in addressing those individuals whose sexual harmful behavior is, at least in part, driven by intrusive fantasies and strong urges and impulses. The proposed mechanism of action for these medications will be enumerated.
Speaker Profile
Nancy Raymond, MD, is the associate dean for faculty affairs and development at the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Raymond received her MD from the University of Minnesota Medical School (UMN). After completing her residency in psychiatry, she was recruited to join the faculty at her alma mater where she advanced through the ranks to become a professor in the Psychiatry Department. She also served as the psychiatric consultant to the UMN Program in Human Sexuality for over 20 years. She is also recognized for her leadership in running the UMN Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and for her training and mentoring of women’s health researchers. Her research interests lie in studying the role of impulsivity in eating disorders and problematic sexual behavior.
11:45 am – Lunch Provided
12:45 pm – Mark Olver—A Meta-Analysis of Sexual Offense Specific Treatment Outcome: The Importance of Program and Staffing Moderators
Presentation Slides – Full Color
A meta-analysis was conducted to examine whether specialized psychological offense treatments, including men convicted for sexual offenses, were associated with reductions in offense specific and non-offense specific recidivism (Gannon, T. A., Olver, M. E., Mallion, J. S., & James, M. [2018]. Does specialized psychological treatment for offending reduce recidivism? A meta-analysis examining staff and program variables as predictors of treatment effectiveness. Manuscript under review.). Staff and treatment program moderators were also examined. The sexual offense specific treatment component of the review examined 47 studies and 41,476 individuals who had sexually offended. Across all sexual offense programs, sexual recidivism was 9.5% for treated individuals and 14.1% for untreated comparisons over an average follow up of 76.2 months, amounting to an absolute reduction in sexual recidivism of 4.6% and a relative reduction of 32.6%. Sexual offense specific programs were also associated with significant reductions in violent and general recidivism. Treatment outcome apeared to improve when programs received consistent direct input from a qualified registered psychologist and facilitating staff were provided with clinical supervision. Several program variables appeared important for optimizing the effectiveness of these programs (e.g., arousal reconditioning). In all, specialized sexual offense treatment is associated with robust reductions in sexual and other forms of recidivism. Treatment service providers and administrators are recommended to pay particular attention to staffing and program implementation variables for optimal recidivism reductions.
Speaker Profile
Mark Olver Ph.D. is a Professor and Registered Doctoral Psychologist at the University of Saskatchewan, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he is involved in program administration, graduate and undergraduate teaching, research, and clinical training. Prior to his academic appointment, Mark worked as a clinical psychologist in various capacities, including providing assessment, treatment, and consultation services to justice involved youth in the Saskatoon Health Region and with federally sentenced men in the Correctional Service of Canada. He has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters and his research interests include forensic risk assessment and treatment, justice involved youth, psychopathy, and the evaluation of therapeutic change. He is co-developer of the Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offense version (VRS-SO) and Violence Risk Scale-Youth Sexual Offense Version (VRS-YSO), and he provides training and consultation services internationally in the assessment and treatment of sexual offending, violence, and psychopathy.
2:30 pm – Bud Ballinger—Using More of the Tools in Your Toolbox: Matching Therapeutic Interventions to Dynamic Risk Factors and Putting the HOW into Risk-Relevant Treatment
The need to treat dynamic risk factors has consistently been discussed, but less attention has been given to how we can best target these needs to achieve the best outcomes. This workshop will provide practical suggestions for matching skill building interventions to criminogenic needs and integrating these interventions into sex offense-specific treatment.
Speaker Profile
Bud Ballinger earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Texas Tech University in 2000. He has worked in diverse institutional forensic settings including correctional facilities, a maximum-security psychiatric prison hospital, and a juvenile detention facility. He served for eight years as the coordinator of forensic services for Madison County, New York providing and supervising evaluations and treatment for sexual offenders and other mandated clients. Dr. Ballinger worked in private practice from 2008 to 2013 providing consultation, forensic evaluations, and courtroom testimony. In 2013, he was hired by the New York State Office of Mental Health to develop an intensive prison-based sex offender treatment program for high-risk sexual offenders who are likely candidates for civil confinement. He is currently the Director of Treatment Services for the NYS OMH Bureau of Institutional Treatment Services, providing clinical guidance to the NYS civil confinement programs and the other OMH programs providing services to individuals with histories of perpetrating sexually abusive behaviors. He has served on the Board of Directors for NYS ATSA since 2011, is the current president of NYS ATSA, and was named an ATSA Fellow in 2017.