Psychology Today: Do Sex Offenders Have A Mental Illness?
NOTE: As we’ve come to know from Smith v. Doe, Psychology Today is a lay magazine that will pretty much print anything. The following article was published in Psychology Today.
Sexual offenders have been despised in all cultures and the thought of release to settled neighborhoods is frightening. Although parameters around released sex offenders are put in place there is dubious trust in the judgments of the experts?
Treatment for sexual offenders is a controversial topic in our modern world. Media reports on serious cases of sexually motivated murder, rape, and child abuse have made people concerned about treatment, release and recidivism. A large majority of incarcerated adult male sex offenders will return to our communities. Finding ways to treat, manage, and supervise these offenders is imperative.
Florida has the most stringent treatment of sexual offenders. It is their focus on civil commitment laws when the state fears an offender could molest, assault or rape again if released. In Florida, it’s legal to lock someone up indefinitely for a crime they haven’t yet committed. But this process is reserved for those who were convicted of violent sexual offenses, completed their sentences, but then were judged to still be a risk.
In Florida, at the end of a sexual offender’s criminal sentence, they are psychologically evaluated by at least two people for a “mental abnormality” or “personality disorder” that would predispose them to commit another violent sex crime. If judged to be dangerous, they’re taken to await their commitment trial.
The trials are based on the predictive probability of future crimes. The hearing may not even include data from their previous crime. Being an expert witness in Florida is a lucrative endeavor. Florida maintains a punitive model of containment.
The problem is, they do not make a separation between someone making bad choices and stupid decisions and people like John Wayne Gacy or other serial rapists.
One of the big things that got me off probation during appeal was the very mental health counselor that I was sent to by probation. He stated that I was no more a threat than anyone else sitting in the court room. That did not go over well with the prosecutor and she was bombarding him with “What ifs”. I almost laughed out loud when he shut her down.
Unfortunately, articles like this one are what the States and courts are going to use against us on appeals and law suits instead of solid research and reliable expert testimonies.
No statistics? Not even one? Not even an acknowledgement that studies and statistics exist?
Up front there is only an anecdote. It concerns the hands-on sexual abuse of more than one pre-pubescent victim. It is described up front, the only case described in the entire article, and once described it is never brought up again, leaving the reader to question why it is there. One can only conclude that it is described only so as to mislead the reader as to the range of crimes that require people to register as sex offenders, and the mindset of those registrants.
Given Psychology Today’s wide readership, and it’s influence on the Supreme Court, it’s important that this publication get it right. How do we post comments on the article?
Do people who have committed a past sex offense also have a mental illness? If so, then the state of Indiana has an Attorney General who needs to seek some professional counseling:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/us/politics/curtis-hill-indiana-attorney-general.html?auth=login-facebook
His punishment: law license suspended for 30 days and no placement on the registry. What would the sentence have been for one of us in the state of Florida? Yes, there might be more charges coming later, but a man who has put many in prison for sex offenses gets to walk away pretty much unscathed. I personally feel he deserves some consequences, but not prison time or to be placed on the registry. In Florida he could be looking at both.
I did read in the Psychology Today article posted at this FAC website that Illinois does not require federal sex offender registry mandates, so Illinois must be a decent state in which to live.
My above link will only open up if you have a Facebook account. This one might work better:
https://apnews.com/b61f619633f25a35b167e396c5d27d3e
People who live in glass houses should not throw rocks at each other, for the obvious reason. Or in the words of Jesus, “he/she that is without sin, let him/her cast the first stone.” That being said, maybe being a public servant of any kind may not be such a good idea. It is similar to the ‘shooting the elephant’ (by Gorge Orwell) or ‘mob mentally’ syndrome where one participates or be victimized or ostracized. In most cases, if not all, those who judge and condemn others for perceived ‘faux pas’ or ‘crimes’ do the same or if not, worse. He who sits on the THRONE of all thrones declares; “I AM not mocked, for whatsoever he/she sows, he/she shall reap.” How many men/women are on the ‘INSORNA’ for what that ‘AG’ of Indiana only received a 30-day suspension for.
Counterpoint:
‘Sex Offenders Often Do Not Have a Treatable Mental Illness.’
Many sexual predator statutes refer generically to people convicted of sex offenses as having a mental illness. However, these special commitment laws were created in part because the persons who are confined under them do not meet the definition of mental illness used in the ordinary civil commitment laws of any of the fifty states. [4] Indeed, the definition of mental illnesses (or more commonly “mental disorders”) used in sexual predator statutes are completely circular in that they define the disorder as the tendency to commit sex crimes.[5] Finally, to the extent that sex offenders have a mental illness at all, it is not one that can be treated under our current understanding and available evidence.[6] Thus, mental health professionals have difficulty determining which sex offenders are likely to be dangerous if not committed and what if any treatment should be provided. This means that courts, which must rely on professional expertise, will regularly make mistakes in deciding who should be committed or released, with serious consequences for both the public and the offender. Additionally, many sex offenders are reluctant to participate in treatment because the information which they reveal in treatment is used to prevent their release.
This was already addressed three years ago, with supporting footnotes, but Psychology Today contributors must assume that its readers are too lazy to conduct a google search:
https://www.mhanational.org/issues/position-statement-55-confining-sexual-predators-mental-health-system (Bullet 2)
Do sex offenders have mental illness?
Gee, I dunno, let’s look at what gets classified as a “sexual offense” to land people on the registry and then ask the people who are asking:
•Public urination
•Teen sexting
•Teens getting caught having sex in a (somewhat) public place like the back seat of a car.
•Young adults getting caught having sex in a (somewhat) public place like the back seat of a car.
•Someone over 18 (attempting without coercion) having a relationship with a person who happens to fall under a specific state’s age of consent but in another state would not have been illegal.
•Ass-grabbing at night/dance clubs.
•Indecent exposure if you’re outside in your backyard and the wind blows your robe open.
Gee, I wonder also: Do sex offenders have mental illness? Hmmm.
Perhaps we, as a society and as reporters for news, need to stop assuming that the words “sex offender” refer to child molestation/rape. How about that? Can we do that? No? Didn’t think so. It’s against their narrative to fear monger.
Psychology Today is NOT a professional journal nor marketed to professionals. It is a pop psychology rag whose target audience is women and the quality of the information is ZERO.
Sadly, dumbed down info such as the garbage published in this joke are the only thing that people seem to be able to understand these days (thank you social media) so once this misinformation and/or outright lies is published they are taken a “facts” – which they are most certainly are NOT.
That propaganda filled rag is placed right at the checkout lane in the grocery store next to those other fact filled journals of Americana such as People magazine and the National Inquirer!
Pathetic
Well, in many cases, it’s the so-called “judge” that slaps the “pedophile” label on a person at sentencing. Following this logic, since pedophilia is a mental illness recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, where’s my SSI disability check!
https://www.theravive.com/therapedia/pedophilic-disorder-dsm–5-302.2-(f65.4)
Completely overlooked is that the law considers a person perfectly sane at the time an offense was committed, absent proof to the contrary. It’s not until a person is released that the court considers the offender in need of “treatment”, evidenced by the crime committed, even though the person was perfectly sane at the time (as verified by the court before trial/plea hearing and at sentencing).
Well, the, ‘THING’ that wrote this article is both a psyche and a lawyer!
Wow, this ‘THING’, as I am unable to identify its gender, really must be able to predict the future!..Wow….so, if this ‘THING’ can predict the future, lets pull all our monies and hire this ‘THING’ to invest in markets and make a 1000% of financial return!
Remember, as someone has previously stated, Psyche Today is a Grocery Store Tabloid piece of crap! It has NO redeeming value! Just a lot of wasted paper and trees that were cut down to publish this ‘THINGS’ personal toilet paper!
Stay Safe and Healthy!
unfortunately the title sex offender is a broad statement about a person and his/her legal issues, the psychiatric diagnosis and treatment of the sexual offender who is by neurotransmitter or impulsive behavior a sexual offender is a medical issue. The legal issues put the highest number of the population into the sex offender label. There fore secondary to the sex offender label comes the most diagnosis-able issues of the sex offender. The depression, anxiety, poor self worth and esteem along with restrictions to a normal lifestyle. This population is taken advantage of a mistreated by many employers, family member, community magistrates, sheriffs, law officers etc. Continue to work to have a voice,