Delaware Administrative Code
Title 1 - Authorities, Boards and Commissions
1100 - Delaware Sex Offender Management Board
Section 1100-2.0 - Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this regulation, have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Assessment" means the collection of facts to draw conclusions which may suggest the proper course of action. Sometimes assessment and evaluation may be used interchangeably but assessment is on-going and includes an analysis of all data including a sex-offense specific evaluation.

"Associate Sex Offense Service Provider" or "ASOSP" means a sex-offense service provider who can perform sex offense-specific treatment, evaluations, or both, in the State of Delaware while under the supervision of a Credentialed Sex Offense Service provider.

"ATSA Code of Ethics" means the Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers published code of ethics for those individuals involved in the evaluation and treatment of sexual offenders. Delaware Sex Offender Management Board approved providers must adhere to these ethics.

"Case Management" means coordination and implementation of the activities directed towards supervising, treating, and managing the behavior of individual sex offenders.

"Clinical Experience" means activities directly related to providing evaluation, treatment, or both, to individual sex offenders. For example; face to face therapy, report writing, administration, scoring and interpretation of tests, participation on supervision teams, and clinical supervision of therapists treating sex offenders.

"Community Supervision Team" means those individuals involved in the case management of a particular sex offender. The supervision team determines the best course of action to reduce risk while the sex offender is supervised in the community.

"Credentialed Sex Offense Service Provider" or "CSOSP" means a sex-offense service provider who can perform sex offense-specific treatment, evaluations, or both, in the State of Delaware.

"Denial" means in psychological terms, a defense mechanism used to protect the ego from anxiety-producing information.

"Evaluation" means the systematic collection, analysis, and documentation of psychological, behavioral and social information. Sex-offense specific evaluation includes the above information as well as information related to sexual history, arousal patterns, sexual deviance, dysfunction, sexual attitudes and cognition, risk of sexual re-offense, and risk of failure in sex offense specific treatment and supervision.

"Face-to-face" means communication that is in-person or via video. Each participant must be visible throughout the video communication.

"Risk Assessment" means the process to determine risk for sexual re-offense through the best current practices in the field.

"Sex Offender" means as used in 11 Del.C. § 4120A(b)(2) and § 4121(a)(4).

"Sex Offense Service Provider" means a person who conducts sex offense-specific treatment or evaluations with individuals who have engaged in sexually problematic behavior according the standards and guidelines of this document.

"Sex Offense-Specific Treatment" means a long term comprehensive set of planned therapeutic experiences and interventions to change sexually abusive thoughts and behaviors. Such treatment specifically addresses the occurrence and dynamics of sexually deviant behavior and utilizes specific strategies to promote change. Sex offense-specific programming focuses on the concrete details of the actual sexual behavior, fantasies, arousal, planning, denial, and rationalizations.

"Sexual Paraphilias/Sexual Deviance" means a subclass of sexual disorders in which the essential features are "recurrent intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors generally involving (1) nonhuman objects, (2) suffering and humiliation of oneself or one's partner, or (3) children or other non-consenting persons that occur over a period of at least six months and cause clinically significant distress in one or more important areas of functioning.

"SOMB" means the Delaware Sex Offender Management Board.