The crimes featured in a recent Sun Sentinel investigation were tragic. The newspaper found that in Florida, for every one sex offender who was committed to a sex predator treatment center, “nearly two others were released and then arrested on a sex charge.” What the article does not highlight is that all of the sex offenders released from Florida prisons – 31,0000 of them — were screened for civil commitment over 14 years. Full Article Jill Levenson, Ph.D., LCSW, is an Associate Professor and Researcher at Lynn University. She is…
Read MoreDay: September 5, 2013
Risk assessment tools plagued by ‘authorship bias,’ study finds
The use of actuarial risk assessment instruments to predict violence is becoming more and more central to forensic psychology practice. And clinicians and courts rely on published data to establish that the tools live up to their claims of accurately separating high-risk from low-risk offenders. But as it turns out, the predictive validity of risk assessment instruments such as the Static-99 and the VRAG depends in part on the researcher’s connection to the instrument in question. Published studies authored by tool designers reported predictive validity findings around two times higher…
Read MoreMissouri Sex Offenders: “Women Against Registry” Says Labels Unfairly Destroy Lives
Next week, in addition to an intense showdown on controversial gun legislation, Missouri lawmakers will have an opportunity to enact a bill that would remove hundreds of sex offenders from the state’s online registry. In order to implement this proposal, lawmakers must override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto and go against the recommendations of St. Louis law-enforcement officials, victims’ rights advocates and other stakeholders. Supporters of the bill — which would allow some in the state to lose the permanent sex-offender label — are now organizing in favor of the proposal,…
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