Analysis of Sex Offender Laws

Analysis of Sex Offender Laws

Instructions/Descriptions

Analysis of Sex Offender Laws

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Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resources on your own before you bid. Main references come from Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017) and/or American Psychological Association (2014). You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation regarding treatment.

Please respond to all 3 of my classmates with references separately. You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation like peer-reviewed, professional scholarly journals. I need this completed by 05/02/2020 at 4pm.

Expectation:

Responses to peers. Note that this is measured by both the quantity and quality of your posts. Does your post contribute to continuing the discussion? Are your ideas supported with citations from the learning resources and other scholarly sources?

Note, that although it is often helpful and important to provide one or two sentence responses thanking somebody or supporting them or commiserating with them, those types of responses do not always further the discussion as much as they check in with the author.

Such responses are appropriate and encouraged; however, they should be considered supplemental to more substantive responses, not sufficient by themselves.

Read your colleagues’ postings. Respond to your colleagues’ postings.

Respond in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight gained from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Make a suggestion.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.

1. Classmate (C. Rod)

“Sex is virtually all in the head anyway” (Cloud, 2010). This quote is how chapter six is started, and I find it very suiting for this week’s discussion topic. A sex offender definition is someone who has been convicted of a sex crime involving a minor. This offense is severe, and when sentencing at a state or federal level, multiple factors are considered (Sex Offenders and Sex Offenses: Overview 2019).

I have heard many people comment that pedophiles should be executed right after the trial, that sexually abusing a child is the unforgivable crime and that a person who commits such a crime has a mind that cannot be healed. During Pre-Prac 1, Dr. Gess had stated that whatever population you do not want to work with, that is what you will get.

She had shared that her population was pedophiles, and that was her first client. Dr. Gess continued that she ended up discovering that he was abused as a child and did not receive any counseling. He kept the vicious cycle alive, but that she ended up developing a strong rapport with him and learned a lot.

Study after study has shown that when an individual experiences childhood trauma, it increases the risk for health and social problems and that it is a common experience for sexual offenders (Levenson, Willis & Prescott, n.d). An early survey found that 63% of incarcerated sex offenders reported being sexually abused as a child or being pressured into sexual activity by an adult (Levenson et al., n.d).

Regarding this information, yes, any child being sexually abused is heartbreaking because we view children as innocent; however, these sex offenders were once children as well. Should not the same compassion be expressed to these individuals?

Your Position on Sex Offenders Rehabilitation

Honestly, just like any type of treatment, it is individualized. I feel it depends on the person, their mindset, and situation details. Individuals that violently raped or murder a child(ren) versus someone who molests are different. Someone who commits such as heinous crime, I’m not sure if they can be rehabilitated.

Many laws pertaining to children victims’ fir into a “culture of fear” especially when any violence threatens children (Farka & Stichman, 2002). Currently, instead of focusing on rehabilitation, the focus is on controlling and monitoring sex offenders for public safety.

One specific case is Leroy Hendricks, who was convicted of child molestation multiple times. Because of this his case deemed violent predator and sent to a mental hospital. He opposed the ruling stating that it violated double jeopardy and ex post facto laws and argued that he had only been punished not treated for his crimes (Farka & Stichman, 2002).

Now I do not if this man would have changed his ways if he received appropriate treatment instead of prison time, I feel conflicted about cases such as this because it can be hard to determine if the individual is sincere or manipulative.

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Treatment

The purpose of treatment for paraphilic disorders has four outcomes: “(a) reducing frequency and intensity of sexual desires and arousal, (b) increasing awareness, (c) controlling exposure of sexually arousing stimuli, and (d) treating comorbid disorders.” (Murray, Pope & Willis, 2017).

CBT’s purpose is to help with cognitive decorations related to paraphilic disorders and will address any trauma history. In the 1950s, at London’s Institute of Psychiatrists developed a treatment for paraphilic behaviors, by utilizing aversive conditioning procedures (Marshall & Hollin, 2015),

In the 1970s, North America started to proceed to use CBT into their sex offender treatment and later added relapse prevention. After three meta-analytic studies successfully showed that CBT was effective in treating sex offenders of reducing reoffending (Marshall & Hollin, 2015).

References

Farkas, M. A., & Stichman, A. (2002). Sex Offender Laws: Can Treatment, Punishment, Incapacitation, and Public Safety Be Reconciled? Criminal Justice Review (Georgia State University), 27(2), 256.

Levenson, J. S., Willis, G. M., & Prescott, D. S. (n.d.). Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Lives of Male Sex Offenders: Implications for Trauma-Informed Care. Sexual Abuse – A Journal of Research and treatment, 28(4), 340–359. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Marshall, W. L., & Hollin, C. (2015). Historical developments in sex offender treatment. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 21(2), 125–135. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Sex Offenders and Sex Offenses: Overview. (2019, January 22). Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/sex-offenders-and-sex-offenses-overview.html

2. Classmate (M. Neg)

Degree/ Extent of Rehabilitation

There are many different determining factors when it comes to whether or not a sex offender can be rehabilitated. It is my belief that with proper treatment a sex offender can be rehabilitated but there are some cases where this could be not possible. It could be harder or not possible to reach rehabilitation with sex offenders who suffer from severe mental problems or depending on the severity of the case.

Rehabilitation is also dependent on whether or not the sex offender is ready to receive treatment. The readiness to receive treatment has to come from the sex offender and not be because treatment was a mandated court order or being used as an incentive to reduce punishment.

Research has shown that a positive prison environment where a sex offender can find meaning and accept positive experiences can help diminish some the prisoner’s negative life experiences and reach new positive self- identities (Hames, Winder, & Blagden, 2016).

Sex Offender Treatment

Sex offenders should have to face their actions through punishment but also receive treatment to stop the behaviors from occurring again. Research has shown that sex offender treatment programs (SOTPs) can help in decreasing the number of sex offenders who are reconvicted (Hames et al., 2016).

With the proper treatment it is possible that sex offenders could stop their behaviors. Although the actions taken by sex offenders are not right, they should still be able to receive treatment and not just punishment. It is important that sex offenders serve time for the crime they committed but while serving time they should be receiving some type of treatment so that if and when they get out there is a less possibility of them taking part in those behaviors again.

Prison climate has an impact on the success of treatment which is determined by a supportive and safe environment, opportunities for growth, and attitudes of staff (therapists, prison officers, and general staff) (Hames et al., 2016). Sex offender treatment should entail a prison climate that is beneficial to treatment, supportive and constructive relationships between prisoner and staff, opportunities for personal development, and relapse prevention techniques.

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Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) would allow for a focus to be placed on dysfunctional thinking that causes unacceptable or inappropriate behaviors (Kim, Benekos, & Merlo, 2016). CBT could be a good approach to use with sex offenders in the process of rehabilitation because it can help guide them to positive changes in their behaviors.

References

Hames, C., Winder, B., & Blagden, N. (2016). ’They treat us like human beings’-experiencing a therapeutic sex offenders’ prison: impact on prisoners and staff and implications for treatment. International Journal of Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology, (4), 371.

Kim, B., Benekos, P. J., & Merlo, A. V. (2016). Sex Offender Recidivism Revisited. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 17(1), 105–117. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

3. Classmate (C. Als)

Main Post

The climate of the prison is related to the aspects of prison life. The key issue for any prison climate would appear to be prison and staff relationships. It has shown when the prison staff shows positive attitudes towards the beliefs about change with these prisoner’s it foster’s in an effective offender rehabilitation behavior.

This is important for sex offenders to have the positive attitudes coming from prison staff which has encouraged the motivation for treatment success for these types of prisoners. Studies show that attitudes were at times in conflict with the prisoners when the attitudes from the staff were negative or in disgust for these prisoner’s criminal behaviors.

This led to stress and pressure from the prisoners and caused an impact on treatment outcomes for the therapist. Studies also found therapists who were warm and empathetic with the men who sexually offend had developed a more effective therapeutic relationship with them.

Many therapists reported about 20 to 30% of change occurred when this type of approach was made. Constructive relationships are critical among therapists and prisoners. Therefore, for the therapist to encounter a healthy therapeutic relationship they must utilize an active listening of understanding and an empathetic approach in order to have a successful outcome (Benekos & Merlo, 2016).

There have been many attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of sex offender treatment. The results which have been incorporated into a series of meta-analysis and most summarized. There has been no found evidence of meta-analysis in reducing a sex offender from reoffending.

However, there have been reports of meaningful benefits as the study shows there is about a 10% to 12% chance with some form of treatment that can reduce the rates of a prisoner reoffending by 13 to 18%. The most potentially approached effective treatment for sex offenders involves the integrated principles of the Risk Needs Responsivity (RNR) model along with a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) approach.

The Risk Needs Responsivity (RNR) model demonstrates treatment for correctional clients that is likely effective when (a) greater allocation resources that devote to the highest risk cases with correspondingly fewer resources offered to low-risk clients.

(b) treatment focused primarily on established dynamic risk. (c) treatment with a rewarding, respectful, warm, and empathetic manner that matches each client’s unique personal characteristics and learning capacity. The RNR showed to be equally relevant when treating sex offender clients.

The Cognitive Behavior Therapy approach is evident and has shown to be the most effective treatment in helping the client identify their currents strengths, fulfilling prosocial life, skills involved in leisure pursuit, criminogenic factors, and addressing the CBT aimed at offsetting these deficits. By utilizing these treatments, the focus is offering the strength-based elements in preventing the sex offender client from reoffending (Marshal, Marshall & Nicholaichuk, 2020).

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References

Kim, B., Benekos, P. J., & Merlo, A. V. (2016). Sex Offender Recidivism Revisited. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 17(1), 105–117. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Olver, M. E., Marshall, L. E., Marshall, W. L., & Nicholaichuk, T. P. (2020). A Long-Term Outcome Assessment of the Effects on Subsequent Reoffense Rates of a Prison-Based CBT/RNR Sex Offender Treatment Program with Strength-Based Elements. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 32(2), 127–153. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1177/1079063218807486

Required Resources

Readings

• Course Text:Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
• Chapter 6, “Sexuality and Mental Health”
• Article:Benfield, J. (2018). Sex Addiction: The Search for a Secure Base. Healthcare Counselling & Psychotherapy Journal, 18(4), 14–17. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Article:Kraus, S. W., Voon, V., Kor, A., & Potenza, M. N. (2016). Searching for clarity in muddy water: future considerations for classifying compulsive sexual behavior as an addiction. Addiction, 111(12), 2113–2114. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Reference Text:American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
  Retrieved from the Walden Library

Analysis of Sex Offender Laws

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