Georgia F. Cumming

Georgia F. Cumming was the program director of the Vermont Department of Corrections' Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Abusers, an integrated network of prison and community based programs, until her retirement in May 2012. She was affiliated with the Vermont Department of Corrections in Waterbury, VT, where she worked alongside clinical director Robert J. McGrath. Her career focused on developing evidence-based approaches to sex offender assessment, treatment, and supervision, with particular emphasis on risk assessment instruments and treatment outcome evaluation.

Cumming co-authored the influential 2007 study "Outcomes in a community sex offender treatment program: A comparison between polygraphed and matched non-polygraphed offenders", which examined whether periodic polygraph compliance exams improved outcomes for sex offenders receiving community-based cognitive-behavioral treatment. She also contributed to "Current practices and emerging trends in sexual abuser management: The Safer Society 2009 North American survey," a comprehensive survey that documented treatment practices across North America. Her work extended to developing widely-used dynamic risk assessment tools, including co-authoring the Sex Offender Treatment Needs and Progress Scale and its successor, the Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS).

Cumming was part of the research team that developed the Vermont Assessment of Sex Offender Risk (VASOR) and VASOR-2, actuarial instruments now used nationally and internationally. Her work on SOTIPS contributed to a 16-item rating scale designed to assess dynamic risk among adult male sex offenders and degree of change at 6-month intervals during treatment, validated on samples of over 750 offenders. Her collaborations with McGrath, Lasher, Hoke, and others produced research funded by the National Institute of Justice that advanced understanding of how static and dynamic risk factors can be combined to improve prediction of sexual recidivism.

Though primarily focused on sex offender treatment and risk assessment, Cumming's research intersected with the field of polygraph science through her work on post-conviction sex offender testing (PCSOT). Her studies contributed evidence on whether polygraph testing, when integrated into treatment and supervision programs, influences treatment engagement, disclosure of hidden behaviors, and ultimately recidivism outcomes—questions central to debates about polygraph utility in community corrections settings.