The current role of post-conviction sex offender polygraph testing in sex offender treatment

Polygraph testing is becoming increasingly important in sex offender treatment. Polygraph advocates cite dramatic increases in historical disclosures that presumably allow more precise targeting of treatment interventions, earlier detection of risky behaviors that often lead to new offenses, and improved treatment and supervision compliance. Based on this, they believe the procedure supports desirable behavior that continues to various degrees after treatment and supervision end. Opponents cite ethical problems related to inaccurate results, unproven accuracy rates, and the risk that examinees may be coerced into making false admissions. To counter these criticisms, proponents have developed standards, best practices, and examiner training and certification programs intended to reduce error rates and address ethical issues. Opponents argue that these measures have not been tested and that empirically established error rates and best practices may not be possible for a variety of reasons. This article reviews the current situation, leaving readers to decide the wisdom and ethics of using polygraph testing in their own practices.     

Impaired sensory-emotional integration in a violent adolescent sex offender

Social risk factors, executive neuropsychological functioning, and emotional numbing were examined as potential risk factors for violent sexual assaults by an adolescent male. The subject had been exposed to at least four previously identified social risk factors, including neglect, early separation from both parents, sexual abuse, and low socioeconomic status. At the time of assessment, executive neuropsychological functioning was intact. At the time of assessment, executive neuropsychological functioning was intact. While impaired emotional responsiveness was an important factor in the assaults, the construct of emotional numbing is too broad to identify the specific neuropsychological impairment involved in the subject's assault behavior. The authors suggest that failures in sensory-emotional integration contributed to the likelihood of violent behavior. Implications for further research and clinical practice are discussed.     

Working with parents to reduce juvenile sex offender recidivism

Although there is very little research in the area of including parents in juvenile sex offender treatment, one of the factors that might be worth exploring is how the parental relationship may aid in successful relapse prevention. Since the family environment is a potential risk factor for adolescent sex offenders, integration of relapse prevention into daily family life may be a significant part of these youths' success or failure in the community. This article focuses on the concept of including parents in juvenile sex offender treatment. Issues addressed include what treatment providers can do to involve parents in relapse prevention, treatment providers' misconceptions about the inclusion of parents in treatment, a rationale for including parents in treatment, and research regarding different parenting styles.     

Assisting the status offender

System change has not kept pace with the accumulating evidence that subjecting the status offender to judicial sanctions is both unfair and unhelpful. Principal arguments for change are presented here, as well as the principal arguments of those opposing removal of the status offender from court jurisdiction.     

The status offender controversy: charges and study evidence

Critics of public policy on status offenders urge that PINS statutes be abolished as racially discriminatory in its target population, as bureaucratically coercive in its labeling of normal children, as undemocratic in lacking the "will and consent" of those whom it presumably serves, and unnecessary in that the social welfare marketplace provides a better service alternative. This report of a study on PINS intake cases in Manhattan finds that the data do not support the charges.     

The juvenile sexual offender: Challenges to assessment for outpatient intervention

Assessment is the key in the outpatient treatment of the juvenile sexual offender, helping to distinguish cause and determine appropriate interventions. The structured assessment identifies issues regarding sexuality, power, control and the impact of sexual abuse upon the child victim and the juvenile offender. Providing a comprehensive view of the offender's past and present, it helps in the utilization of treatment techniques.     

Sex offender notification and protective behavior

A primary purpose of sex offender community notification statutes is to give community members the opportunity to engage in precautionary behavior to prevent victimization. This exploratory study examines the effect of notification by comparing the behavior of 87 Hamilton County, Ohio, residents receiving sex offender notification to the behavior of 149 other residents who had not received notification. The findings indicate that notified respondents are significantly more likely to engage in behaviors to protect themselves and others from victimization, and to engage in community reporting behavior.     

Monitoring adolescent gambling in Minnesota

Youth gambling was investigated in a prospective sample of 532 Minnesota adolescents and young adults. Of particular interest was the possible impact among the study sample of a recent state lottery and of reaching the legal age for gambling on changes in the rate and type of gambling. Overall rates of gambling involvement and pathological gambling did not change across the 1.5 year interval. However, a preference for certain types of gambling activities (e.g., lottery, casino machines) significantly increased, whereas more informal and unregulated games (e.g., betting on games of personal skill) significantly decreased. Also, access to gambling activities by underage youths was high, suggesting the need for tighter controls of legalized games and greater awareness of this problem by the gaming industry and public health officials.Support for this study was provided by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Compulsive Gambling Treatment Program. A version of this work was presented at the Seventh National Conference on Gambling Behavior, July 24, 1994, New London, CT.     

Treatment of the adolescent sexual offender

This article is intended to provide a broad overview of the treatment issues and processes for adolescent sexual offenders. Through the authors' experience treating hundreds of juvenile sex offenders in a state correctional institution, five major treatment tasks are identified: 1. breaking through the offender's denial; 2. addressing offenders' own history of victimization and its impact on their present lifestyle; 3. confronting dysfunctional attitudes and values that support sexual victimization; 4. teaching social skills and 5 changing deviant arousal patterns.Mr. Kahn is Program Director, Echo Glen Children's Center and Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington, School of Social Work. Ms. Lafond is a Juvenile Rehabilitation Administrator at Echo Glen Children's Center.     

Mother-child incest: characteristics of the offender

Studies of the childhood, adulthood, and parenthood of women who sexually abuse their children are rarely found in the literature. The characteristics of 26 such mother-child incest offenders are explored by the author and compared to the characteristics found in other studies and in clinical experiences with incest offenders of either sex.     

The safety costs of contingent work: Evidence from Minnesota

We find that workers’ compensation costs for leased/staff agency workers are about three times higher than for regular full-time workers. This differential grows even wider when controlling for worker characteristics. Authors give a number of reasons for this result, including claimsreporting moral hazard on the part of contingent work-ers. We also present results on claim denials by work status, which seems to support the cost model. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the grants for research program of International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP). Comments from Rich Derrig, Larry Aarhus, members of the Industrial Relations Center workshop, and an anonymous referee are greatly appreciated. The authors also appreciate Brian Zaidman for his helpful comments and assistance with the data for this study.     

Housing Preferences of Suburban Elderly in Minnesota

This article reports on a study of older people's interest in relocating to retirement housing and their preferences for various housing features. It is based on data from a 1984 survey of 908 households with at least one member over age 55 in Minnetonka, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis. The purpose was to determine what subgroups are most likely to be interested in relocating to elderly housing and what types of housing they prefer. Age, income, marital status, and gender were found to be significantly related to interest in relocation.     

Correlates of male and female juvenile offender abuse experiences

This paper reports the results of developing and evaluating a classification of 315 arrested youth processed at the Hillsborough County Juvenile Assessment Center from September 1, 1994 to January 31, 1998. Youth were characterized as physically or sexually abused if they reported abuse or if they had been referred to juvenile court for abuse. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that family problems, friends' substance use, and delinquency involvement (marginally significantly related) were associated with both physical abuse and sexual victimization. In addition, physical abuse was associated with psychological problems and sexual victimization with being female, being older, and own substance use. The research implications of these results are discussed.     

Juvenile offender recidivism: an examination of risk factors

One hundred and seventy three male juvenile offenders were followed two years postrelease from a residential treatment facility to assess recidivism and factors related to recidivism. The overall recidivism rate was 23.9%. Logistic regression with stepwise and backward variable selection methods was used to examine the relationship between recidivism and nine specific variables: offense type, age at initial involvement in juvenile justice, child welfare system involvement, termination of parental rights, parental criminal history, family support, program completion status, length of treatment stay, and discharge placement. Offender type was the only factor found to have a significant impact on recidivism with general and substance-involved offenders more likely to recidivate than sex offenders. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The acquisition of basic sex information

Previously unpublished data from the Kinsey sample concerning the acquisition of basic sex information are presented. These are contrasted to data obtained from a similar, but smaller sample of respondents from the current generation. Basic facts about sex are being learned at considerably younger ages today, apparently as a result of increased maternal effort to provide information, increased sex education in the schools, and more explicit treatment of sex in the media. Same‐sex peers remain the dominant educators, but other sources, notably mothers, have increased in importance. The sex differences in age of acquisition found in the Kinsey sample have largely disappeared.     

网络与青少年性教育

网络虚拟世界中的各种性信息对青少年产生强大的冲击波,而它的一些非法性、不合理性因素也对现实中的主导性教育产生一定的负面影响.充分认识加强和改进网络环境下的性教育工作的重要意义,研究它的特点和规律,探索进一步加强和改进青少年性教育工作的新途径和新办法,才能使性教育真正具有实效性.     

Understanding human ambivalence about sex: The effects of stripping sex of meaning

We offer a theoretical perspective to provide insight into why people are ambivalent about sex and why cultures regulate sex and attach symbolic meaning to it. Building on terror management theory, we propose that sex is problematic for humankind in part because it reminds us of our creaturely mortal nature. Two experiments investigated the effects of reminding people of the similarity between humans and other animals on their reactions to the physical aspects of sex. In Study 1, priming human‐animal similarities led to increased accessibility of death‐related thoughts after thinking about the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In Study 2, when participants were reminded of similarities between humans and other animals, mortality salience resulted in decreased attraction to the physical but not romantic aspects of sex. In each study, priming thoughts about how humans are distinct from animals eliminated the association between sex and death.