Members of a state task force say a loophole may let sex offenders avoid being labeled sexually violent predators by refusing to participate in a psychological evaluation.
The Governor’s Task Force on Sexually Violent Predators, which met Friday, is working to close the loophole administratively rather than by passing new legislation.
Sex offenders who refuse to participate could be evaluated through different criteria than sex offenders who participate. The new criteria could more readily identify them as sexually violent predators, said Dave Thomas, executive director of the Colorado District Attorney’s Council.
A new risk-assessment scale would focus more on the sex offender’s criminal record than other scientific factors, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Justice Division.
Gov. Bill Owens formed the task force following a newspaper report that said only two sex offenders living in communities in the state had been identified as sexually violent predators.
In May, The Post reported that the Department of Corrections had not set up a system for administering sexually violent predator tests and had not given a single test to any rapist or child molester in six years.
State probation officers had either failed to do 1,200 tests or didn’t have records of doing the tests.
Since then, the DOC has evaluated 147 sex offenders to see if they should be labeled as sexually violent predators, said Patti Micciche, DOC spokeswoman.
The Division of Probation Services is still trying to determine how many sex offenders should receive psychological tests.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-820-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
