Assignment : Recidivism Rates for Sex Crimes
In a minimum of 500 words, post your responses to the following:
Analyze the recidivism rates for sex crimes and offer your opinion, supported by research, on the effectiveness of treatment. Be sure to include research from the following article from the Argosy University online library resources:
The lowest of the low? Addressing the disparity between community view, public policy, and treatment effectiveness for sex offenders
Research the local laws in your state or province regarding sex offenders. Specifically, determine whether the offenders must register with the police, whether they have a retrievable photo on an electronic database on the Internet, and whether any restrictions have been placed on them regarding where they can live. In your view, what are the benefits versus the costs of the information you have collected? What changes would you like to bring to the laws to make them more effective?
Examines the concept of psychopathy. Psychopaths probably account for more violent offenses than any other personality type. In this module, you will study about psychopathy and associated criminal behavior. Additionally, this module provides an overview of the instruments used to measure psychopathy. These instruments frequently play a role in parole board decisions as well as in risk assessment evaluations.
In addition to school and workplace violence, you will examine homicide, family violence, and the issue of multiple murders, including serial killings and mass murders.
In this module, you will also examine sex offenders and sexual crimes. Sex offenders and the crimes they commit are among the more highly charged areas in the forensic psychology profession. There is a great deal of debate about the proper punishment, treatment, and subsequent incarceration of individuals who commit sex crimes. Currently, some violent sex offenders who are predicted to pose a risk for future violent behavior can be civilly incarcerated after having completed their criminal incarceration. Thus, an individual judged to pose a danger in the future can be incarcerated for crimes that he or she may commit.
In this module, you will learn about the treatment of sex offenders as well as the attitudes held by the public and professionals toward them.
• Integrate historical and contemporary theories of criminal behavior to forensic psychology to explain causes of criminal behavior.
• Compare and contrast the complex nature of crime in the criminal and civil legal systems.
• Analyze criminal behavior risk factors from multiple theoretical perspectives and examine the influence of moderator variables (e.g., gender, race, and age).
• Apply the dynamics of various types of criminal behaviors to forensic psychology.
"In fact, the mental hygiene code, modeled originally upon the criminal code, binds the afflicted party under every method of legal restraint. The afflicted is in a sense one accused, hospitalization constituting a type of arrest, accompanied by police power and physical force both in seizure itself and in detention, where escape is prevented by locks and bars and prohibited by statute as well.
Having committed no crime, one can - while drugged and unable to comprehend the proceedings, without even counsel of one's own choosing - within a routine five-minute hearing lose one's liberty for an indeterminate period, even for life."
-Kate Millett