In 2006, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which established a civil commitment procedure to keep dangerous federal sex offenders behind bars after their sentences were complete. Some inmates challenged the law, stating that Congress had exceeded its powers, and it was overturned by a federal appeals court. Now, the Supreme Court has reversed that decision and upheld the law.
Read Supreme Court upholds federal sex offender law on the Christian Science Monitor.
Buttons
Silvermoon, yes – that IS what it’s all about. It’s about facing down that rabid tiger and grabbing it by the ears and putting it out of our misery.
Donna, have you ever considered printing up Tshirts with one of those “anti” circles around the term, “Spath?” They’d sell like HOTCAKES!!!!!
BloggerT7165
Oxy,
When doing these kind of assessments the ideal and preferred way is that you get as much collateral information from as many different reliable sources as possible. The reality is often something different though.
Another issue is that the way these are done often vary quite a bit in the end result. Even the PCL-R scores vary 10 or more points depending on who is doing it. That is a huge problem. If only a small number of tightly monitored people were the only ones using these tools it would be much easier for the tool to be used properly and get better results. But when a test hits widespread use it is not so easy.
I don’t think there is any one easy answer. A few things I personally think would help would be a change in the correctional system as a whole. We are the “land of the free” yet we lock up more people than even the soviet union did. We need to work on prevention and treatment for the low level non-violent crimes and save the long term prison sentences for those truly dangerous offenders.
In my state alone we spend over $1 Billion dollars a year on prisons while only spending about $670 million on education. Money better spent on prevent and education programs to help people learn about and better avoid predatory people. Money better spent on prevention, treatment and social programs to help decrease crime overall.
And sadly there is no 100% way to ever be safe or get rid of predatory people. And despite the myth some people who would be called sociopaths DO benefit from treatment. Just because someone won’t change or don’t change does not mean they can’t change. Many people with substance abuse issues won’t/don’t change for many years with some never changing. Some predatory people (such as a gang member) don’t/won’t change for years and do horrible things yet decades later they change and turn around and run programs to try to help others escape that lifestyle.
There are very few absolutes. There are some that won’t change. It is their choice though. And that is what makes it harder to predict. People, unlike animals, can overcome nature and nurture with choice in many areas. This is one of those areas.
silvermoon
I’d do a tshirt with an embroidered out line of a heart shape in the place of a circle and then put the line through it.
Small, On the left breast. And underneath it I’d put the tag line:
GET REAL
But, we are a small community and we are a small community who are determined to heal from this experience and not repeat it.
Maybe a better shirt would have a picture of earth from space and underneath it, ME TOO. Because isn’t the exercise to heal from the stunning, disabling shock and fear and grief in order to get back wholly to the real world?
I know I am holding on tight here. Still.4 almost 5 months and I cling to this place and these friends because when I don’t, its too easy to slip back into the place I was in.
I’m realizing it is time to morph again. To pull back on the throttle and rise up through the clouds of doubt and uncertainty.
I realize what has to change and that the time has come to go forward in a more integrated person than I have been before.
Everything adds up. Ready as ever will be because the time is now.
Is this what a catapulted stone feels like hurtling through the air?
The reason doesn’t matter to the stone, just the journey. Because landing is mandatory….
Because putting it out of our misery is exactly right Buttons.
Exactly right.
one/joy_step_at_a_time
i had been thinking that i would ask someone else to out the spath as i was getting waaaay too triggered.
so, i have been living with this idea. good. fine. and everyday i feel anger at what she has done and does. really pissed.
and tonight i worked on the f****** 25 character spreadsheet and i burst out laughing at the inanity of one of the ‘characters.’ I LAUGHED 🙂
And then worked on some stuff for the AG and WASN’T TRIGGAHED AT ALL.
did get mad at the ppath again when i was reading an old IM with the bf of the boy character. (jerking me around grumble grumble…but it’s okay!)
HALLEFREAKINLUJAH!!
Ox Drover
Dear Blogger,
I agree with you 100%—what our society does in the way of “criminalizing” some acts and NOT criminalizing others which are as bad or worse, the inequity of sentences, etc. just makes me want to puke!
They have “thrown out the baby” it seems with the “politically correct” bathwater.
Yes, I am aware that some “gang members” who do horrible things “change” and turn their lives around—I disagree with you though that those people who did those horrible things were actually TRUE psychopaths. BUT, the thing is, HOW on God’s green earth can you tell the difference between two people who have done the same thing (let’s say murder)?????
We can’t prosecute people for what they THINK, but only for what they DO. We can’t imprison people for what they MIGHT DO and still have a free society….Stalin, Hitler, and Mao did those things and we can’t be like them and still have a “fre4e” society.
Yet, we all admit that there are people in this world that are DANGEROUS, that are EVIL, that won’t change, that won’t quit what they are doing, that will repeat and repeat as long as they live.
The interrater problem is the same with any “subjective” test for anything, and yet there is no OBJECTIVE test proving that someone is a psychopath. Or even if they were, are they a dangerous one?
It’s kind of like you “can’t kill a snake unless it is poison” but you can only tell if it is poison if it bites and kills someone. But then, you have to make sure it is the RIGHT snake, and that you are not killing a poison snake that wasn’t the one that bit and killed the person,, and maybe it might STOP being poison if you try to rehab it and show it that being non-poison is nicer. YAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! (sound of head banging on rock here) LOLK
silvermoon
One-
Isn’t it wonderful how stretching out the absurd into a logical frame – like a spreadsheet makes it all so clear?
Well, I’m glad you are feeling focused enough to laugh out loud!
Its good medicine.
And better yet, getting organized to discuss the whole thing in a matter of fact way with someone who might have an action oriented interest.
Its a good thing….
super chic
one… TOWANDA!!!!
one/joy_step_at_a_time
hi guys 🙂 thanks.
was trying to sleep, but it alludes me…um, that would be the too much caffeine after 4pm. arghh. well, that and the pain. i am in a chronic pain study…and we are doing some exercises…and now i am in pain. hmm. lol.
today is pretty good in lots of ways. but doing that spreadsheet a couple of weeks ago sent me over the edge…tonight it was not triggering.
silver – still falling with grace i see.
super chic
one, I think that it is AWESOME that you were able to
laugh at one of the characters!
I only have caffeine in the morning,
it doesn’t go well with the Ativan I take every night to sleep! 🙂
one/joy_step_at_a_time
ativan…i’d love some atavan. no, really. it makes my muscles melt in the best way.
well, it was just SO outrageous…and i’d forgotten about that character.