3-27-2010 California:
Experts say refusal to acknowledge crime increases chance of new offense
Some are young, some are old, some are middle-aged.
They can be poor, wealthy or middle-class. Some are smart, some not so smart.
While researchers say sex offenders fit no typical profile, they share the characteristics of deviant sexual arousal, interests or preferences, according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Center for Sex Offender Management.
Those include sexual contact with young children or adolescents; sexual contact with others against their will; inflicting pain or humiliation on others; taking part in or watching violent acts; exposing themselves in public; and secretly watching others undress or engage in sexual contact.
When they commit their crimes, nearly all sex offenders are aware that what they are doing is illegal and harmful to their victim, the center says.
"Yet they engage in the behavior anyway," the center says. "What happens is that sex offenders may tell themselves that the behavior is not harmful, or that it is less serious, or claim that the victim enjoyed the behavior."
Sex offenders such as John Albert Gardner III, who refuse to take responsibility for their crimes, are more likely to commit another sex offense, according to a San Diego State University sociologist.
"With adolescents, the earlier you identify them, the more successful treatment is," said Dr. Thom Reilly, director of the university's School of Social Work. "The older someone gets, and if they are unwilling to admit their offense, the chances of treatment being successful are a lot less."
Gardner's records show he repeatedly denied committing the lewd and lascivious acts with a 13-year-old girl that resulted in a six-year prison term in 2000.
It was the girl's mother, not he, who was responsible for beating her, the then-20-year-old Gardner told authorities.
"The defendant made no mention whatsoever of feeling contrition or remorse," according to a pre-sentence report.
Denying culpability signals a likelihood to reoffend, Reilly said during an interview last week.
"With someone who refuses to acknowledge their crime or who blame others, there's a lot less chance that the behaviors will be changed," he said.
Four years after he was paroled in 2006, Gardner, 30, is charged with the Feb. 25 slaying and sexual assault of Chelsea King, 17, of Poway.
Gardner is also charged with the Dec. 27 assault on a jogger at Rancho Bernardo Community Park, the same park near where Chelsea was slain.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and he remains the only named suspect in the February 2009 disappearance and murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido.
Lack of empathy
San Diego clinical psychologist Dr. Michael Mantell has worked with sex offenders for decades and says most share a characteristic: "These are people with tremendous deficits of empathy."
Sex offenders are almost always victims of some type of abuse when they were young.
Gardner, for example, told authorities after his arrest in 2000 that he often was beaten by his father, whom he described as an alcoholic.
"The psychology of the offender almost always includes having been offended themselves," Mantell said. "Somewhere in their life, the person has been preyed upon and hurt emotionally. I haven't seen any (sex offender) who wasn't her- or himself hurt in a physical, emotional or sexual way."
Researchers say it's those who are never treated for such abuse that pose a higher risk of becoming sex offenders later in life.
Mantell said his experience in working with sex offenders convinces him they are driven by impulse to commit their crimes.
"These people are obsessed," he said. "It's always on their minds."
From everything he has learned about Gardner, including the conclusion of the psychologist who interviewed Gardner in 2000 and determined he was a predator who represented a continuing danger, Mantell said he believes the murder suspect "has all the signs and symptoms of a multiple sex offender."
"When a psychologist says 'he cannot be rehabilitated,' you need remarkably compelling evidence to the contrary to believe the behavior will ever change," Mantell said. "These are people who, in their core belief system, think that having sex with kids is OK. It's only the ones who show genuine remorse and are really working at it who are good candidates for rehabilitation."
Someone who kills in the commission of a rape or an attempted rape, as Gardner is accused of doing, is considered a "lust murderer."
"They enjoy watching their victim suffer," Mantell said.
No simple cures
A report issued by the California Sex Offender Management Board in January cautions that there is no magic formula for identifying, treating or monitoring sex offenders.
"No two sex offenders pose the same level of risk, nor can they be managed or supervised in identical ways," the report concluded. "Similarly, policymakers and the public should be suspicious of any one technology or strategy which promises to solve the problem of sex offenders."
At any given time, California has about 10,000 sex offenders under county probation officer supervision and an additional 6,800 on parole from prison and under the watch of state parole officers.
Treatment services for those individuals are often nonexistent, according to the management board report.
There is no formal sex offender treatment program in the prisons, and the report urges Sacramento lawmakers to fund one, as well as post-prison counseling.
Gardner violated his parole on at least seven occasions.
But those violations ---- speeding, driving without a license, marijuana possession ---- were considered minor and not enough to revoke his parole or have him committed to a mental hospital for evaluation.
That's one of the areas that state lawmakers and the parents of Chelsea King now say needs a comprehensive review.
The Sex Offender Management Board issued that same message in January, saying the state needs a more efficient screening process to determine which parole violations indicate a stronger chance of the person reoffending.
Politics and recidivism
Calls for mandatory "one-strike" laws that would lock up a sex offender for life after a single conviction came shortly after Gardner was arrested.
In fact, numerous studies of convicted sex offenders show that the majority are never arrested for a second sex offense.
Their recidivism rate is far lower in California and nationwide than for most other types of crimes.
A 2008 report to the state Legislature that studied more than 4,000 sex offenders after their release from prison found only 3.5 percent committed a new sex offense within three years.
Thirty-five percent, however, were returned to prison because of a parole violation, according to the study.
The relatively low likelihood of a second sex offense, but required lifetime registration requirement under Megan's Law, creates questions of appropriateness, according to Jody Armour, a University of Southern California law professor.
"Unlike murderers, arsonists and other people convicted of committing serious bodily injury, it's only sex offenders who have continuing lifetime reporting obligations," he said. "How do we square that with how we treat the others?"
Armour said he recognizes the calls for tougher punishment and even more monitoring of sex offenders.
"But we need to make sure we temper our judgment with a sense of proportionality," he said.
*California sex offender recidivism breakdown:
Returned to prison because of new sex offense within three years: 3.5 percent
Returned to prison because of a new nonsex offense within three years: 4.5 percent
Returned to prison for parole violation: 35.5 percent
*Source: California Sex Offender Management Board January 2008 Report to the Legislature. Study followed 4,287 sex offenders released from state prisons in 2003.
*General recidivism rates among 2005 California parolees returned to prison within two years:
Vehicle theft: 67 percent
Possession of a controlled substance: 62 percent
Robbery: 52 percent
Burglary: 52 percent to 59 percent depending on classification of crime
Forgery: 48 percent
Arson: 46 percent
Sexual penetration with an object: 34 percent
Lewd act with a child: 32 percent. This is the charge for which Chelsea King homicide suspect John Albert Gardner was convicted of in 2000.
Rape: 28 percent
Murder: 3.3 percent
*Source: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The individuals in the study were returned to prison because of new offenses or violation of their parole conditions. ..Source.. MARK WALKER - mlwalker@nctimes.com
March 27, 2010
REGION: Sex offenders share lack of empathy
August 4, 2007
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act: A Legal Analysis
Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress
April 6, 2007
Summary
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, (P.L. 109-248, H.R. 4472), emerged from Congress following the passage of separate bills in the House and Senate (H.R. 3132 and S. 1086 respectively). The act's provisions fall into four categories: a revised sex offender registration system, child and sex related amendments to federal criminal and procedure, child protective grant programs, and other initiatives designed to prevent and punish sex offenders and those who victimize children.
The sex offender registration provisions replace the Jacob Wetterling Act provisions with a statutory scheme under which states are required to modify their registration systems in accordance with federal requirements at the risk of losing 10% of their Byrne program law enforcement assistance funds. The act seeks to close gaps in the prior system, provide more information on a wider range of offenders, and make the information more readily available to the public and law enforcement officials.
In the area of federal criminal law and procedure, the act enlarges the kidnaping statute, increases the number of federal capital offenses, enhances the mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment and other penalties that attend various federal sex offenses, establishes a civil commitment procedure for federal sex offenders, authorizes random searches as a condition for sex offender probation and supervised release, outlaws Internet date drug trafficking, permits the victims of state crimes to participate in related federal habeas corpus proceedings, and eliminates the statute of limitations for certain sex offenses and crimes committed against children.
The act revives the authorization of appropriations under the Police Athletic Youth Enrichment Act among its other grant provisions and requires the establishment of a national child abuse registry among its other child safety initiatives. ..more.. by Charles Doyle, Senior Specialist, American Law Division
July 7, 2007
The Iowa Sex Offender Registry and Recidivism, 2000
December 2000
Abstract
The Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning (CJJP) received funding through the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program for the purpose of collection and analysis of data related to implementation of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. The research had two specific goals: · To enhance understanding of the State’s Sex Offender Registry through collection and analysis of data on sex offenders before and after the Registry’s implementation. · To develop and validate a unique Iowa Sex Offender Risk Assessment tool to assist in identifying those offenders who constitute the highest risk to re-offend. Few studies have addressed the impact of a Sex Offender Registry program on recidivism rates or other variables. It was the purpose of this first study to examine and compare two groups of individuals to determine what effect, if any, the requirement to register as a sex offender had on recidivism rates over a 3-4 year period. ..more.. by Department of Human Rights
Recidivism
2001
Preface to the Internet Edition
I started working in the general area of recidivism and correctional measures over 20 years ago, under the assumption that I would be able to make some marginal changes in the measurement of recidivism. What has happened has been quite gratifying. The primary yardstick of the time, the “one-year recidivism rate,” has generally (but not completely) been replaced with measures based on survival analysis, as suggested by this book. It was also gratifying to have the book receive awards in two fields, criminal justice (the Leslie T. Wilkins Book Award) and operations research (the Lanchester Prize). Despite this, the book has been out of print for a number of years, prompting me to retrieve the copyright from Academic Press and publish it on the Internet.
During this period the software environment has changed to a great extent: the FORTRAN programs listed on pp. 206-222 are included more for the sake of historical curiosity than out of any expectation that they will be used. In addition, the use of Cox regression procedures in survival analysis has made the search for covariates simpler than as described in Chapter 10. [However, those who use Cox regression techniques should be aware that, even though it is a nonparametric method, it makes the implicit assumption that the hazard rate of each individual is the same as for that of all other individuals, except for a multiplicative constant.]
One concern that I had at the time I initially wrote this book, and which I still have, is the penchant of some social scientists to use only the standard methods they learned in graduate school, without considering the conditions under which they can and cannot be used. They appear to be wary of going beyond the “tried and true” (or in some instances, “tired and false”) methods.
This is in some sense equivalent to a shoe salesman attempting to sell a size 9 shoe to a person with a size 8 foot, because it’s the only size available. My growing concern about the misuse of methods was detailed in a paper published in November 1994, in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, “Deviating from the Mean: The Declining Significance of Significance,” and elaborated on in subsequent articles in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology. This book can be used as a primer on how to deal with a measurement problem, by first considering how it has been dealt with in the past, and then attempting to fashion a method based on the characteristics of the problem.
A note on this version: I have tried to keep the same text on this version as on the printed page, so that the index would not have to be redone. This has meant that some of the pages are longer than others. I’ve also taken the opportunity to correct some of the typos; however, as anyone who has scanned material into a computer, new errors are often introduced – one cannot expect the character recognition to be correct everywhere. I would appreciate it if those who find mistakes would communicate them to me Other than that, this version is the same as the original. ..more.. by Michael D. Maltz, Department of Criminal Justice and Department of Information and Decision Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago
The Reconviction Rate of Federal Offenders
June 2003:
Recidivism is an important and widely used performance measure for correctional programs, but there is no single, standard measure of recidivism. The report notes that it is often difficult to compare recidivism rates because various methods are used and these produce different results.
Using the RCMP's criminal records to measure all new offences, the study found that reconviction rates for federal offenders released in three consecutive fiscal years -1994/95, 1995/96 and 1996/97 - were 44 per cent, 43 per cent, and 41 per cent, respectively. Non-violent offences accounted for the majority of reconvictions. The violent reconviction rate was approximately 13 per cent, and the sexual reconviction rate was very low (0.7 per cent to 1.7 per cent).
The major goal of the present study was to derive a standard measure of recidivism for use by the Portfolio of the Solicitor General. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of different measures of recidivism, the Committee chose a new conviction for an offence committed within two years as the most acceptable measure from the choices available.
However, a choice had to be made as the public deserves a uniformly reported measure of recidivism rather than the confusing range of statistics presently offered. We hope that by outlining the limitations of the present methodology and the reasons for choosing reconviction as our measure of recidivism we give a common language to the correctional agencies of the federal government. ..more.. by James Bonta, Tanya Rugge, Mia Dauvergne, Solicitor General Canada
June 9, 2007
Report on Safety Issues Raised By Living Arrangements for and Locations of Sex Offenders in the Community
Crime and Justice in Colorado 2006 .
March 15, 2004
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, Office of Domestic Violence and Sex Offender Management, conducted research on the safety issues raised by living arrangements of sex offenders in the community. This research primarily focused on two questions:
(1) Do the living arrangements of sex offenders, including Shared Living Arrangements, have an impact on community safety?
(2) Do the location of sex offender residences, specifically in proximity to schools and childcare centers, have an impact on community safety?
To answer these questions, probation files were reviewed on both a random sample of sex offenders under probation supervision in the Denver metropolitan area and an all-inclusive sample of sex offenders under probation supervision in the Denver metropolitan area living in a Shared Living Arrangement (n = 130 for the combined sample). Data were extracted from the first 15 months of supervision for the sex offenders selected for this study.
The findings and subsequent recommendations are presented below. ..more.. by Colorado Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Justice, Sex Offender Management Board
