Sexual Crime Assessment and Treatment - Coursework Example

Running head: Case Study Sexual Crime Assessment and Treatment Insert Insert Grade Insert 22 March Introduction A psychological, clinical or investigative assessment is an attempt by a skilled professional in their area of specialization to use professional techniques and tools to learn general or specific facts about a person or a situation and inform others about the current situation or status and/or predict future behavior. Various methods of assessment of sex offensive cases in existence include but not limited to psychological, penile plethysmography, abel assessment, and ploygraphy. Sexual offending may be related with a number of physiological, social, and psychological factors such as sexually deviant fantasies, organic brain damage, earning disability, substance abuse, and personality disorder just to name but a few. This paper will explore various aspects of sexual offending by adolescent individuals in terms of case assessment, characteristics of offenders, treatment and some psychological tests that can be used on cases. Sexual Crime Assessment and Treatment Assessment of a passive clinical or psychological problem is important to inform and identify method of treatment and also determine indicators of risk involved. To make a successful mental health assessment of Joe’s case and determine presence or absence of mental illness, a complete history of the behavior of victim is necessary, beginning taking static data such as age and gender. Any relationship between potential mental illness and sexuality behavior by the victim would be studied. Here, we undertake a psychosexual history analysis of the offender to establish association or non-association of habits such as sexual preoccupation that include repeated sexual fantasies or not easy to control sexual urges, and hyper-sexuality activities involving but not limited to things like masturbation or many sexual partners. Depending on the assessment, if presence of any form of sexual fantasies is diagnosed, this might mean existence of paraphilia, in which case the depth of the problem in terms of number of times the habit is repeated and at what strength must further be examined. Where mental illness exists with paraphilia, it is important to assess the timing of the occurrence of the latter given the presence of the former. We should also not forget to incorporate the possibility of substance abuse as a cause or related to sexual habits by the offender (Rosler & Witztum, 2000). Usually, the use of a self questionnaire is encouraged because the offender would be willing to provide more information unlike the face to face interview. The input of friends and family is also vital to provide more information about the victim’s behavior. An investigative assessment of a sex offender case may involve looking at mainly historical data and information about the individual. These may be previous criminal records available, number of sex offences committed, evidence of response to sexual and no-sexual violence, present and past behavioral experience with small children and evidence of social isolation. Authorities may also be interested in knowing about the occupational location of the offender to determine the motive for access to potential victims, evidence of excessive intake of alcohol and substance abuse as a way to hide from reality and pursue a reckless lifestyle. There are differences between how law enforcement personnel and a forensic mental health professional would conduct assessment and criminal investigative procedures. The forensic mental health professional would undertake a comprehensive assessment of the case using several assessment methods such as clinical interviews, observation, use of historical information, psychometric testing among others. The law enforcement personnel, on the other hand, generally begin with getting information and facts from the victim after encouraging him/her to report the crime, then deal with the suspect later when found (Johnson, 2012). The authorities may not take time to establish whether there is a possibility of mental illness until the matter is finally in court where the judge may order a medical examination. Police and other law enforcement agents do not usually take this crime as one requiring psychiatric attention and due process of observing ethical issues in gathering of information from the suspect particularly. Ordinarily, a psychiatrist or a health professional will take these things into consideration. We take a look at personality characteristics and motivational dynamics of a sexual offender. According to Gordon and Grubin (2004), sexual offenders, whether mentally ill or not, may display certain characteristics that are attributed to self management, social effective management, personal sexual interest control and misguided individual attitudes and beliefs. Among some of the common character traits of sexual offenders whose information may be obtained through psychometric testing and clinical interviews include preference for underage sexual involvement, violence, intimacy difficulties, poor self regulation, inability to solve problems, and tendency for a reckless lifestyle. Other attributes have been identified as cognitive distortions, emotional loneliness and incompetence in socialization. Adults who often infiltrate family and social functions and like to spend most of their time with small kids, or seem to be in constant suspicious contact with children, or those who take children belonging to other people to outings on regular basis are sexual offending candidates and require necessary attention to avert their behavior (Hanson & Thornton, 2000). The scope of post conviction treatment in this section will include specific recommendations for type of treatment and outcome measures that may be used to evaluate the progress. Before treatment of offensive sexual behaviors can be started, it is important to undertake proper assessment of whether the habit has any relationship with the mental condition of the individual (Thornton, 2002). If mental illness is involved, it should first be treated because it might be the sole cause of sexual offending, but where this vice is only as a result of an individual’s abnormal sexual fantasy lifestyle, appropriate treatment should be instituted to deal with the menace. Modern psychological treatment for the latter has advocated cognitive and behavioral controls such as olfactory aversion and covert sensitization, which enable the victim to avoid or reduce the tendency to repeat the acts. These treatment methodologies have shown positive response in research and practice, with repeated application of corrective behavioral skills learned and ensuring personality control to overcome temptation and inappropriate sexual drive. There are no known negative outcomes of this method, only good results and improved behavior with strict discipline observed. Surgical castration is another treatment method which is rather seen as a traditional approach with a punishment connotation but has been found as one of the most effective in terms of substantial impact in reducing offensive sexual behaviors among individuals. The practice has been abandoned because of ethical objections, the emergence of hormonal treatment, and the fact that it is permanent and irreversible. Hormonal treatment, which uses certain hormones to reduce sexual urge, had gained popularity in the past but its use has slowed down because of the associated side effects. Some outcomes reported from use of hormones include considerable reduction of sexual arousal because of concentration of plasma testosterone resulting in reduced frequencies of masturbation, sexual tension and sexual fantasies, weight gain, mild lethargy, cold sweats, hot flushes, nightmares, hypertension, elevated blood glucose levels and reduced testicular size as told by self-reported individuals. Psychotropic medication is used to manage unacceptable sexual behavior but has been associated with common side effects such as sexual dysfunction, but with desirable outcomes reported like reduced sexual obsession, lowering of impulse rate and anxiety. The cognitive behavior control is recommended as a better and effective method of treating the problem. One of the appropriate psychological tests for psychological profiling and/or criminal investigation available is the serological test, which makes use of different psychological devices to evaluate levels of uneasiness as well as dysfunction problem. Personality or objective tests, on the other hand, measure the characteristics of an individual independent of assessor’s beliefs with results anchored against a certain benchmark rating (Stone, 1992). Attitude test is the measurement of a person’s feelings about something or somebody else, usually critical in marketing to understand individuals’ attraction to certain product or service. Conclusion Treatment or management of sexual offence behaviors has a medical, psychological and legal perspective and calls for comprehensive assessment of the individual case to understand and determine whether they has association with mental illness or not, thus the method of treatment. According to the case at hand, Joe Doe is a convict of sexual immorality already but due process of determining his guilt or otherwise may have been overlooked. In-depth medical examination coupled with psychological assessment should be done to provide adequate ground for the law to take its course. There are different methods of assessment including Abel, psychological, polygraphy among others. A number of treatment methodologies are in existence including cognitive behavior control by the offender which is better than the rest because it has no side effects, involves repeated actions to avert behavior that leads to the urge for sexual misbehavior. We advocate the establishment of multi-disciplinary, and indeed multi-agency, teams that can make use of the full range of clinical, psychometric, and psycho-physiological methods available for evaluation and management. References Gordon, H., & Grubin, D. (2004). Psychiatric aspects of the assessment and treatment of sex offenders. Retrieved from http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/10/1/73.full#ref-51 Hanson, R. K., & Thornton, D. (2000). Improving risk assessments for sex offenders: A comparison of three actuarial scales. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 119–136. Johnson, S.A. (2012). Interview strategies for police officers investigating sexual offenses. Retrieved from http://lawenforcementtoday.com/2012/02/25/interview-strategies-for-police-officers-investigating-sexual-offenses/ Rosler, A., & Witztum, E. (2000). Pharmacotherapy of paraphilias in the next millennium. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 18, 43–56. Stone, H. (1992). Depot neuroleptics: Involuntary castration? Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, 3, 7–11. Thornton, D. (2002). Constructing and testing a framework for dynamic risk assessment. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 14, 139–153. Read More