Forensic prognostic instruments assess an offender's risk of re-offending. Thus they assign of-fenders to risk categories, which contain a certain probability of recidivism within a certain period of time after release from prison. Most instruments however do not evaluate the effect which dy-namic processes such as therapies have on individual risk disposition. This gap FOTRES aims to close.

The FOTRES (Forensic Operationalized Therapy/Risk Evaluation System) is a clinical instrument for the assessment and standardized documentation of all types of offenders. It consists of 700 items and assesses 3 main dimensions, namely the structural risk of recidivism, the mutability of an offender's disposition and the dynamic risk reduction provided by therapy.

All items of the ‘structural risk of recidivism’ relate to the offender's past or the offense itself. The items explore the offender's personality and disposition to delinquency. They also cover specific problem areas relevant to the offense and the pattern of the offense itself. The second dimension assesses the mutability of the offenders risk disposition through therapy or coping strategies. The third dimension measures the actual risk reduction which has been attained through therapy or the implementation of such coping strategies. Thus the FOTRES does not only serve as an in-strument of prognosis but also as tool for planning assessing therapy progress.

The FOTRES is currently being used by more than 200 clinicians in the German speaking area. It is presently being translated into English and Dutch and is being validated on different offender populations in Switzerland.