Forensic Management of Sexual Offenders

333 Pages·2000·9.265 MB·English

by  Robert Alan Prentky Ph.D., Ann Wolbert Burgess D.N.Sc. (auth.)

Forensic Management
of Sexual Offenders
PERSPECTIVES IN SEXUALITY
Behavior, Research, and Therapy
Series Editor: RICHARD GREEN
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom and
Gender Identity Clinic
Charing Cross Hospital
London, England, United Kingdom
THE CHANGING DEFINITION OF MASCULINITY
Clyde W. Franklin, II
FORENSIC MANAGEMENT OF SEXUAL OFFENDERS
Robert Alan Prentky, Ph.D., and Ann Wolbert Burgess, D.N.Sc.
GENDER DYSPHORIA: Development, Research, Management
Edited by Betty W. Steiner
HANDBOOK OF SEX THERAPY
Edited by Joseph LoPiccolo and Leslie LoPiccolo
IMPOTENCE: Physiological, Psychological, Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment
Gorm Wagner and Richard Green
NEW DIRECTIONS IN SEX RESEARCH
Edited by Eli A. Rubinstein, Richard Green, and Edward Brecher
THE PREVENTION OF SEXUAL DISORDERS:
Issues and Approaches
Edited by C. Brandon Qualls, John P. Wincze, and David H. Barlow
PROGRESS IN SEXOLOGY
Edited by Robert Gemme and Connie Christine Wheeler
SEX IN CHINA: Studies in Sexology in Chinese Culture
Fang Fu Ruan
SOCIOLEGAL CONTROL OF HOMOSEXUALITY: A Multi-Nation Comparison
Edited by Donald J. West and Richard Green
THEORIES OF HUMAN SEXUALITY
Edited by James H. Greer and William T. O'Donohue
TRANSVESTITES AND TRANSSEXUALS: Toward a Theory of Cross-Gender
Behavior
Richard F. Doctor
TRUE NATURE: A Theory of Sexual Attraction
Michael Kauth
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Prentky, R. A.
Forensic management of sexual oftenders/Robert Alan Prentky and Ann Wolbert
Burgess.
p. cm. -(Perspectives in sexuality)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4613-6866-3 ISBN 978-1-4615-4159-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-4159-2
1. Sex crimes. 2. Sex crimes-Investigation. 3. Sexology-Research. 4. Forensic
sciences. 1. Burgess, Ann Wolbert. II. 11tle. III. Series.
HV6556 .P74 2000
616.85'83-dc21
00-029631
ISBN 978-1-4613-6866-3
©2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers in 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2000
AII rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording,
or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
Preface
Over the past several decades the seeming escalation of crimes involving sexually deviant,
coercive, and aggressive behavior has become an increasingly serious problem, manifested
in costs to both victims and society at large. The long-term psychological impact of sexual
assault on adult and child victims has been documented numerous times. The costs incurred
by society include a network of medical and psychological services provided to aid victim
recovery, the investigation, trial, and incarceration of offenders-often in segregated units
or special facilities-and the invisible but tangible blanket of fear that forces potential
victims to schedule normal daily activities around issues of safety. Despite the gravity of the
problem, there has been a paucity of empirical research directed at the etiology, course,
remediation, and management of sexually deviant and coercive behavior. In treating these
disorders and in making crucial decisions about how to manage these offenders, clinicians
have been forced to rely on their personal experience. Such experience by its nature is
unsystematic and lacks the validation that empirical research provides.
The lack of sound empirical data addressing the problem is certainly noteworthy,
though not surprising. The paucity of research in this area may well be attributable to
historical scientific timidity about most aspects of sexual behavior. In 1922 Dr. Robert L.
Dickinson, writing in the Journal oft he American Medical Association, stated that "in view
of the pervicacious gonadal urge in human beings, it is not a little curious that science
develops its sole timidity about the pivotal point of the physiology of sex" (Henderson,
1981, p. 6). Indeed, Dickinson's observation would apply to most, if not all, aspects of
sexuality.
Perhaps the most well-known study of "sexual deviation" was that by the neuropsy
chiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Although he was a prolific writer on many aspects of
psychiatry, Krafft-Ebing is best remembered for his textbook, Psychopathia Sexualis, a
study of over 200 forensic case histories. He wrote in the Preface to the first edition of that
book, "The object of this treatise is merely to record the various psychopathological
manifestations of sexual life in man and to reduce them to their lawful condition." Krafft
Ebing received severe criticism, if not censure, for the book. In 1893, the British Medical
Journal remarked, "Better if it had been written entirely in Latin, and thus veiling in the
decent obscurity of a dead language" (p. xl). Krafft-Ebing must have anticipated the furor
v
vi Preface
his book would arouse. He resigned his professorship at Strasbourg and founded the
Sanatorium Marigrum, near Graz, Austria, where he lived in seclusion during the 1880s.
When professional and public outcry diminished, Krafft-Ebing was called by the Univer
sity of Vienna to assume the highest academic post by taking over Meynert's clinic and
teaching activities. Apparently immune to criticism over his highly controversial book.
Krafft-Ebing revised Psychopathia Sexualis through the 12th edition.
Roughly 100 years after Krafft-Ebing's death, we have replaced Victorian reserve with
a post-Modem sexual revival, characterized by explicit and widespread use of sexuality in
media, entertainment, advertising, and marketing. This apparent "renaissance" in sexuality
has not, however, translated into an equivalent renaissance in empiricism. Since sex
remains fundamentally tawdry, it remains off-limits for scholarly inquiry. As recently as
1989, the task of gathering epidemiological data in the fight against AIDS was mired in
Congressional controversy.
Perhaps even more than other areas of sexuality, human sexual aggression has long
been in the shadow, discredited as a subject of respectable scientific inquiry or reserved for
ideological sparring. With the exception of some excellent infrahuman research, there has
been, until recently, precious little empirical work done on sexually coercive and aggres
sive behavior. The past two decades, however, have witnessed major scholarly contribu
tions to this field and the exponential growth of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual
Abusers, a fledgling organization in 1987 that now has more than 1500 members, sponsors
an annual international research and training conference that attracts over 1200 participants,
and publishes its own research journal.
In this book we review and discuss the major advances that have taken place over the
past 20 years in the management of human sexual aggression. This book is, first and
foremost, a forensic volume, intended to reflect what we know and don't know about the
most effective management of sexual offenders. In so doing, we also attempt to tackle
major controversies and obstacles that we face. It is our principal goal to separate supposi
tion from fact and myth from reality. By employing an empirical litmus test, we hope to
identify what is known, what are sound, empirically based hunches, what is mere specula
tion, and what probably lies in the realm of mythology. To reduce somewhat the scope of
this undertaking, we have focused on those aspects of the problem that have the most
immediate and urgent impact on society: the legal disposition and management of sex
offenders. Although the greater problem of sexual coercion and violence is a social prob
lem, indeed perhaps a public health crisis, the most immediate need is to assist the virtual
army of specialists who attend to every facet of the management of known sex offenders. It
is for those specialists-clinicians, forensic examiners, attorneys, judges, investigators,
parole agents, probation officers, policy- and lawmakers, and social scientists-that we
wrote this book.
The book presents a dual perspective, that of a forensic psychologist and a forensic
nurse. Our colleagueship began in the early 1980s at a National Institute of Mental Health
conference on the treatment of sex offenders. That meeting led to our collaborative work
over the past two decades. Combined, our work with sexual offenders spans more than 50
years. The roots of this volume originated at a National Academy of Sciences Panel on
Understanding and Control of Violence. The commissioned report on sexual violence (by
Preface vii
R.A.P.) led to a collaborative effort to revise and redirect the core of the report around the
central theme of management. It is our singular mission to assist the field through cautious,
prudent analysis of what is known, and judicious recommendations, guided by empirical
data. The speed with which this field is evolving is at once exhilarating and daunting,
leaving us with the necessary admonition that relatively little of what we share with our
readers today may apply tomorrow.
Acknowledgments
There are numerous individuals to whom I (R.A.P.) owe a very considerable debt of
gratitude, most notably the many colleagues who have been my mentors over the years and
the deep generosity of the federal agencies (the National Institute of Justice and the Na
tional Institute of Mental Health) that have supported our research over the past 20 years.
Dick Laymon and Christy Visher, both ofNU, and Jim Breiling (NIMH) have guided and
shepherded our research projects for over two decades. Their confidence and support have
been unwavering.
In particular, I would like to thank my research colleague of two decades, Ray Knight,
for his unrelenting devotion to empiricism and his infusion of science into a deeply flagging
field. Ray and I enjoyed the most dedicated and talented research team that any empiricist
could hope for. Although the research staff are far too great in number to list, I would be
remiss if I failed to mention two old-timers, Alison Martino and David Cerce, who have
been stoically gathering and coding data nonstop for the past 22 years. I have treasured a
very special collegial relationship over the years with Enny Cramer, Tim Foley, Don
Grubin, Bert Harris, Roy Hazelwood, Marty Kafka, Austin Lee, Nathaniel Pallone, Sue
Righthand, Theo Seghorn, and, of course, my coauthor Ann. Theo, who surely is one of the
most unheralded pioneers of this field, has been a wise and loyal friend and advisor, as well
as the magnet that drew me into this field. A very dear friend, the late Fay Honey Knopp,
provided me with strength and inspiration during the hardest of times.
There are many others who, in the course of preparing this book, helped to locate and
supply much needed articles. We would like to thank, in particular, Lloyd Sinclair, Asher
Pacht, Robert Miller, Kim English, Steve Hart, and Roxanne Lieb. We would also like to
thank Karl Hanson, Steve Hart, Vern Quinsey, Douglas Epperson, and David Thornton for
permitting us to include their risk assessment scales in the Appendix of this book. We also
wish to acknowledge with gratitude the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice and the U.S.
Bureau of Justice Assistance (D97-DB-15A-694) for permitting the reproduction of
Colorado's Sexual Predator Risk Assessment Screening Instrument.
We would like to extend a very special thanks to Assistant Attorney General Laurie
Robinson of the U.S. Department of Justice and her Special Counsel Marlene Beckman for
the courage and the wisdom to bring to fruition the Center for Sex Offender Management,
ix
x Acknowledgments
and to Mimi Carter of the Center for Effective Public Policy and Project Director of CSOM,
for her tireless energy and enthusiasm that has made CSOM the first major interdisciplin
ary, federally initiated and funded undertaking to stem the tide of sexual violence. To the
best of our knowledge, the federal government has never before undertaken a project of
such scope, magnitude, and potential benefit.
We would like to acknowledge, with thanks, the American Psychological Association
for permitting the reproduction of text and tables from two of our earlier articles (Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology [1997, 65, 141-149] and Journal ofA bnormal Psychol
ogy [1969, 74, 249-255]). We are grateful to Kluwer AcademiclPlenum Publishers for
permitting reproduction of material from articles appearing in Sexual Abuse: A Journal of
Research and Treatment (1997,9(4),335-347) and Law and Human Behavior (1997,21,
635-659), and to Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health for permitting reproduction of
text appearing in CB&MH (1993,3,381-392).
Finally, it is with all my love that I (R.A.P.) dedicate this book to my wife Jackie and
our children Michael, Jeffrey, and Samara.
Contents
Chapter 1. Incidence and Prevalence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2. Victim Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Chapter 3. Diagnosis and Classification 25
Chapter 4. Assessment 71
Chapter 5. Prediction ................................................ 99
Chapter 6. Legal Responses to Sexual Violence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Chapter 7. Forensic Evidence 183
Chapter 8. Remediation .............................................. 203
Chapter 9. Special Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. 245
Appendix. Risk Assessment Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 267
References 293
Index ............................................................. 329
xi