I recently read an interesting discussion of the civil commitment of sex offenders in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law by Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D. and colleagues. I had some thoughts about the article I’d like to share with you.
Many states in the United States now have laws that allow for a sexually violent predator (SVP) or a sexually dangerous person (SDP) to be committed to a mental hospital or forced into outpatient supervision once they have completed their prison sentence. In these states, mental health professionals are asked to evaluate potentially dangerous sociopaths and decide whether there is enough risk to society to warrant either inpatient or forced outpatient treatment. If an offender is deemed to be a SDP/SVP they can be committed indefinitely, only California has a specified renewable term of 2 years.
To qualify as aSVP/SDP an offender (1) has to be convicted of the offenses determined by the state to constitute a sexually violent crime; (2) to suffer from a diagnosed mental disorder; and (3) as a result of that disorder, represent a risk to public safety if released to the community.
Notice that SDP/SVP laws are designed to detect the “mentally disordered” and to differentiate them from other offenders who are presumed to be normal (?). (Is anyone who commits a sexually violent crime normal?) The intent of the SVP/SDP laws is not punishment of the offender but protection of society.
The authors of the article point out that antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy/psychopathy) can be one of the mental disorders used to justify commitment. ASPD is recognized to qualify as “a congenital or acquired condition affecting the emotional or volitional capacity that predisposes the person to the commission of criminal sexual acts to a degree constituting the person a menace to the health and safety of others.”
Granted, not every sociopath is a sex offender, and not every sociopath who commits a sexual offense is deemed to be a SVP/SDP. For example if an offender breaks into a person’s home to steal things, discovers a victim and then assaults, that is different from the offender who breaks in to look for a sexual victim and doesn’t take the jewelry.
The idea behind these laws is that the mental disorder causes the person to offend and diminishes his/her capacity to resist reoffending. In Minnesota for example, “Sexual psychopath personality” means the existence in any person of such conditions of emotional instability, or impulsiveness of behavior, or lack of customary standards of good judgment, or failure to appreciate the consequences of personal acts, or combination of any of these conditions, which render the person irresponsible for personal conduct with respect to sexual matters, if the person has evidenced, by a habitual course of misconduct in sexual matters, an utter lack of power to control the person’s sexual impulses and, as a result, is dangerous to other persons.
These laws all raise the question of the sociopath’s choice with respect to behavior. They imply that the sociopath has diminished choice and that the predatory behavior is a compulsion.
I am very much in favor of these SVP/SDP laws. I just wish we applied the same reasoning to other compulsions sociopaths have. For example. What about con artists? Don’t they evidence, “by a habitual course of misconduct in truthful matters, an utter lack of power to control the person’s lying impulses and, as a result, is dangerous to other persons.” While we recognize the terrible impact of sexual assault on victims, we tend to minimize or not recognize the psychological rape perpetrated by con artists.
Many sociopaths are “criminally versatile” in that they compulsively commit many different classes of crimes. Why can’t we recognize that sociopaths have a personality disorder that indeed makes them dangerous to other people, and subject them to more careful supervision once they are released from prison?
The states that have SVP/SDP laws are Arizona, Illinois, Wisconsin, California, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota and Tennessee.
For more discussion see:Sreenivasan, S., Weinberger, L., & Garrick, T. (2003). Expert testimony in sexually violent predator commitments: conceptualizing legal standards of “mental disorder” and “likely to reoffend”. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 31(4), 471-485.
Dear Liane,
To me ANY VIOLENT “habitual criminal” should be incarcerated for LIFE. A “three (felony) strikes and you are out” (or IN for life) law would decrease crime on the streets and take the MOST VIOLENT criminals out of circulation.
20% of the criminals commit about 80% of the crime, so the habitual offenders would be stopped. I think any verified sexual assault or forceable rape should be life w/o parole.
I go back and forth on the death penalty, since there are cases where people have been exonorated by DNA evidence and released off death row. It would be bad enough to incarcerate an innocent person, much less put them to death.
I also think that all pedophiles are psychopaths, and I think Dr. Anna Salter backs me up on this though she doesn’t use the “word” psychopath.
Thanks for this thought provoking article.
Liane:
I would like to know ‘who’ and ‘what’ the criteria is….who is judging this ‘criteria’ of what consists of a ‘danger’ to society in this regard.
What is a danger to society? Potential murderer…..potential rapists….potential violent criminal? How about financial rapist, child predator….(are children part of the criteria for ‘society?), kidnapping, hostage taking of family members….hijacking retirements, assets etc…Covert things Cluster B’s do….
How on earth can a judge make this decision without being educated on Sociopathic behaviors….Hmmmmmmm.
“decide whether there is enough risk to society”
WHAT is ENOUGH risk….who judges this….what is the standard and how do we educate these judges/prosecuters to be able to identify WHO is this person…..
I’d be curious how many offenders have been held on the civil commitment law…..how many prosecuters are aware of this law…and fight for it….
I think it’s an ‘easy’ thing to turn a blind eye on in the court system….
and then let’s talk budget cuts….who’s paying for the hold?
Is there funding for this, when we can’t even prosecute violent criminals in the first place effectively?
So much must change to allow the laws we have to work in the ‘spirit’ intended…..
How about cutting the budget by axing the death row folks immediately….start there…..
I don’t know….i’m getting started….
I don’t think society has the balls to be tough! It’s the ‘good ol boy’ system….
Thanks for sharing this with us Liane…..and thanks for all your valuable insights and professional views you share here at LF.
i have developed some ‘odd hobbies’ since being spathed – i google all sorts of things related to sociopathy and see what turns up.
tonight this turned up: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/05/sociopaths_they.html
the comments are fascinating.
warning – there is def. some triggering stuff there.
Liane :
I have a question….
Is there a difference between
Oppositional Defiant disorder and Sociopathy… or cluster B?
Are the behavorial criteria much difference, or is the age of diagnosis the difference….over 18 for s’s…under maybe for ODD?
I’d appreciate your view on this…
I second that! These types are incorregible and like a bomb just waiting for the right conditions to go off.
Thanks for the question about ODD. Since the answer is fairly long and also impinges of the What’s the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath? question, how about if I take a stab at it and post on Friday?
Also Since I might not have been clear in the present post. The idea is that inmates soon to be released are evaluated by mental health professionals who then develop an opinion regarding dangerousness AND whether that dangerous is related to a mental disorder (the disorder can be ASPD). If the professional thinks the answer to both is yes, the findings are presented to a judge who then decides. The article I referenced tells professionals what criteria to use to make the determinations. Is is technical but very interesting. Email me if you want to know more.
Dear Liane,
Unfortunately, not every inmate is evaluated before release in a manner that actually DOES something about them. The “Trojan Horse” Psychopath that infiltrated our family to kill us, was given an OFFICIAL diagnosis of ASPD, he was a 3 X confivicted pedophile with children ages 9, 11, and 14, AND a “habitual criminal” with 15 pages of convictions AND he had violated EVERY parole release—he was ranked #4, VERY HIGH RISK in Texas, when he got to Arkansas, even in spite of all this he was ranked #2 level Sex offender and the reason given to me was “he did not commit these crimes ARKANSAS.”
So by going across state lines, he went from HIGH RISK VIOLENT to “low risk”—not even on the web site listing of S.O.s. Plus, his parole officer did not even know he was an S. O.!!!!!
The AR parole board was going to release him to a half way house in May after he was given a 5 yr sentence from August, with 2 suspended, so he would have only been in prison from August to May for A FELON WITH A HAND GUN—DUH!
By raising a stink with the parole board and the fact that paroling any S.O. to a half way house is prohibited in AR, they canceled his May parole and he didn’t get out til December 5th.
So he was in prison/jail from Aug 4 to Dec 5 the following year, and on parole for the rest of his 3 yr sentence.
Unfortunately, too, each STATE is in control of how criminals are treated, sentence guidelines, etc. so unless it is a FEDERAL crime, there is NO uniformity in sentencing from state to state, to say nothing of the fact that the county District Attorney decides WHICH cases to prosecute or let plead out to avoid a trial. The Th-P had multiple counts of idenity theft, attempted murder, etc etc and the ONLY one he was allowed to plead to was the “certain persons with a gun.” Actually, my X-DIL though she got 5 yrs probation after her 8 months of jail time, her felony level was HIGHER for buying him the gun than his was for having it.
I am currently reading a text book called “Criminal Justice, Opposing Viewpoints,” Bonnie Szumski, editor (Greenhaven Press, St. Paul Minnesota) and frankly, our “criminal justice” system is an OXYMORON! IN MY OPINION.
Oxy,
my god, what a horrible mess the justice system is in.
i can’t find ANY logic to the downgrade of risk from 4 to 2. – not even f*cked up bureaucratic logic. it basically says, we value our children less than we value texan children (if I can compare apples to oranges).
Now, the inverse would be f*cked up, but there is plenty of precendent for bureaucratic regionalism, a well documented branch of NIMBY (NOT IN MY BACK YARD)
I sometimes wonder if vigilante justice should be completely ruled out.
Dear One-step,
I just read an article about a crooked Brooklyn Judge, FORMER NY Suprement court judge Gerald Garson (google his name you will wet your pants at the articles about this scumbag!) who was taking bribes to settle custody and financial divorce issues. He went to prison (he was taped taking a $1000 bribe) but had apparently done this for YEARS.
This man was a JUDGE and crooked “as a dog’s hind leg” as we say here—he should have beenj HUNG!
This kind of thing is NOTHING NEW, though, as if you will read history back to the earliest recorded political history, the “rulers and judges” have always been the strongest or the most crooked, and so this is nothing new. Politics has always been self serving and I personally don’t know a single person in political office above dog catcher that I would think was honest. I think most have to “sell their souls” to get the office. But that’s just my opinion.
Unfortunately, “vigilante justice” soon turns into tyrany as well, so the RULE OF LAW even as poor as it is DONE is still the best idea I think. It does behoove us however to do our best to “keep’em honest” as much as we can.
Unfortunately, too, the psychopathsj (and I think many of the politicians ARE psychopaths) have NO shame. Look at all the cheating husbands who have been brought down lately as Govs etc. NO SHAME. 20/20 did a story on them this week that made me cry for some of those women who were BLIND SIDED by the revelations of their husbands, one that he was gay, and another that he took off for South America when he was supposed to be hiking the App. trail.
Oxy,
Tf we knew depth of corruption around us everyday, we might choose to not get out of bed some days.