Risk Assessment with Child Sexual Exploitation Material Offenders

In this episode, Dr. Maaike Helmus joins Forensic Briefs to explore risk assessment in cases involving people charged with possession of child sexual exploitation materials (CSEM). A leading criminologist and developer of widely used risk assessment tools, Dr. Helmus discusses the evolution of research around CSEM offenders, the challenges of tool validation across jurisdictions, and the implications of recent critiques of the CPORT tool. She explains how professionals can responsibly apply tools developed in other contexts, how research struggles to keep pace with technological change, and the evolution of risk took development over time. . Thoughtful, timely, and deeply nuanced, this conversation offers critical insight into one of the fastest-growing and most complex areas in sexual offense assessment.