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.
In California inmates in the “drug rehab” California Rehabilitation Center, in Norco, CA, are civil commitments. These are low level nonviolent drug offenders. Should they be given the same indeterminate sentences as sociopaths?
Last night we went over to the home we were in the process of purchasing. It was time to check on the repairs the sellers agent promised would be done.
We had very low expectations, because the seller’s agent had been unreliable throughout the previous 3 months. We didn’t expect much at all. Amazingly, this person managed to dive well below our already very low expectations.
I made a bee-line for the home’s gas furnace in the garage. Upon our home inspection, we had discovered that there were two broken parts on the unit that could result in carbon monoxide poisoning. Since this was the life or death issue, I checked it first. The first item was a broken cut off switch to the doors of the unit. I removed the doors, and the unit instantly shut down. Impressive! Something had been done right. I let myself hope for a moment. Then I squatted to look at the inducer fan housing. A large crack in the inducer fan housing was now highlighted in grizzly, goopy, bloody red, as if a horror movie psychopath had been trying to make a sick point. I felt my stomach heave with revulsion.
Instead of replacing the severely cracked housing, someone had simply smeared some sort of red glop over it. They hadn’t been particularly thorough either. I recalled the inspector’s warning that sometimes an unscrupulous or ignorant person would “repair” a heating unit in this fashion. At the time he had explained that repairing the unit correctly could cost as little as 180 dollars, including labor. At the time, I had assumed that no reasonable person would risk negligent homicide or reckless endangerment charges over such a paltry sum.
I had been DEAD wrong.
Evil walks among us always. You never know when you’re going to find yourself eyeball to eyeball with someone who will roll you for the spare change in your pocket and kill you for a little folding green.
When Hannah Arendt coined the term, “the banality of evil”, she was talking about the smooth charm and utter ordinariness of people like the seller’s agent in our property deal. Three times this week the lady charmingly promised our agent a copy of the receipt for the HVAC contractor’s repair bill on the house. Three times, our agent’s fax machine and email in box came up empty. Each day the seller’s agent slyly asked if we, the buyers, had signed off on the repairs yet.
“When you dine with the devil, bring a long spoon.”
We still want the house, but now we realize that our very lives could be at stake. Is this deal really worth it? How much more is being concealed from us? We will have to proceed with extreme caution.
The sewage pipe under the house still spews raw sewage under the living room with every flush of a toilet or stream of water in a sink. The furnace is still a deadly hazard. Two or three of the most superficial repairs have been completed, but the deeper, more serious problems remain. Worst of all is the certain knowledge that there are things we don’t yet know about that are almost certainly being willfully concealed.
Sociopaths are everywhere. Never drop your guard, and don’t hope that our legal system will be able to protect you from them. It will never happen. Most sociopaths will manage to slip through the cracks.
By the way, life has been unusually hard for my family recently. About a decade of hard times have been ruthlessly rolled into one 2 month period. I’m sure there’s a lesson concealed in this bizarre hand of cards we’ve been dealt.
I’ll tell you one thing, a lesson from the distant past has been repeatedly reinforced. Over two decades ago, my Sergeant Major told me this fable:
A bird was flying south for the winter.
It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field.
While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realise how warm it was.
The dung was actually thawing him out.
He lay there all warm and happy and soon began to sing for joy.
A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.
Following the sound the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung and promptly dug him out and ate him!
Moral of the story:
1) NOT EVERYONE WHO DROPS SHIT ON YOU IS YOUR ENEMY
2) NOT EVERYONE WHO GETS YOU OUT OF SHIT IS YOUR FRIEND.
3) AND WHEN YOU ARE IN DEEP SHIT, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
…
It’s absolutely true. You’d be amazed how badly you can be treated when you’re down and out.
Most people are decent, but a surprising number aren’t.
Elizabeth:
If I were in your shoes, I would tell the seller that I will take care of all the necessary repairs that need to be done on the house myself.
BUT, the price of the house will have to be reduced, to reflect the work that still needs to be done.
The seller is leaving this house, so he is not interested in doing major work on a house that he will no longer own.
If you leave the repairs up to the seller, I seriously doubt if the work that needs to be done will ever be up to par.
You are probably better off hiring your own people, and doing the work yourself.
But, like I said, that means they need to credit you on the sale price of the property for these repairs.
Get estimates on what it will cost to make the repairs on your own, and have these costs deducted from the sale price.
And, if they insist on making the repairs, then YOU INSIST on choosing the contractor to do the repairs, so that it will be done right. Be very specific about what you expect. In writing, of course.
Who inspected this home?
If the seller had this home inspected, there may be more surprises that have yet to be uncovered.
If you hired your own inspector, then the home is probably fine except for the repairs that need to be made.
I’m just giving you some possible options, and some things for you to think about.
And, it sounds like it’s not too late for you to walk away from this deal, either.
That’s always an option, as well.
Good luck with this LOSER real estate agent & seller.
It’s the seller who is allowing the real estate agent to negotiate this way.
So, they are both losers in my book.
Rosa,
It’s a Repo. If I walk on this deal, I’ll never look at another repo again. I’ve been up to my arse in organic fertilizer ever since I bid on the house.
I’ve considered all the factors you laid out. Part of the problem is that I’m using my VA benefits to buy the house. I have to sign a legal document stating that the house is livable before my loan can go through. I can’t buy the house until the seller makes it livable, and I won’t sink any more money into the place until I own it.
The seller must make it livable. If the seller fails to make it livable, there are a few recourses left to me which I’m not prepared to discuss on an open forum.
We’ve been very gracious, so the seller has thus far assumed we’re pigeons ripe for the plucking. We’re not.
Yes, Elizabeth.
Loser personalities have a tendency to mistake graciousness for stupidity, and kindness for weakness.
I feel your frustration.
I made a valentine’s card ”“ a place where we can write our wishes for growth, life and love: http://lfvalentinescard.blogspot.com/
please spread the word.
best,
one step
ElizabethConley:
Would the VA accept a hard dollar amount over and above the repair amount held in escrow at the time of closing? That way you’ve got the cash to make the repairs, with anything left over reverting to the seller. I used this mechanism in other real estate closings (not VA, but I did get FannieMae to go along with this).
Dear Elizabeth,
That “little birdie” story is one of my favorites!!!! Oh, yes! Great story!
Hang in there Lizzie, just go get you an AX and give’m 41 whacks! LOL
I know it is a pain in the butt, but you can handle it I am sure, and at least you are no “push over” and that is sure in your favor! Right now, too, there are not 100s of people standing in line for any repos or houses for sale, so you are in the BUYER’s market at least! There has to be something good out of this recession. (((hugs))))
Matt,
“Would the VA accept a hard dollar amount over and above the repair amount held in escrow at the time of closing? ”
Nope. That would be smart, and we’ll never be able to accuse the VA of being smart.
I would far prefer that option, because it would permit me to hire an ethical, qualified contractor, instead of being at the mercy of these goons.