There Are Good People Out There

May 3, 2013, 6:05 am

Judge blasts failures of sex offender support

"A Supreme Court judge has delivered a scathing criticism of the lack of support services and accommodation options for dangerous sex offenders in the community, which left him no choice but to detain a schizophrenic paedophile in jail indefinitely.

Justice John McKechnie, who is in charge of the court's dangerous sex offender list, called for ministerial intervention and said there was "far too much reliance on the stretched and limited resources of the private sector to overcome deficits within government services".

In a judgment handed down yesterday, Justice McKechnie said the State's failure to meet its obligations was rendering the court's discretion "illusory" and could compromise protection of the community.

Imposing an order for the continuing detention of Anthony John Alvisse, who has spent nearly twice his original sentence in indefinite custody since finishing a jail term in 2006, Justice McKechnie said the failure of government departments to secure suitable accommodation for the past seven years had left him no option.

An annual review of Alvisse's order was done last month.

Alvisse has a long history of child sex offences and was last jailed for three years and four months in 2003 for sexually assaulting a teenager.

He was released under strict supervision in December 2006 but was locked up in February 2007 after he called triple-0 confessing he was a sex offender and wanted help "because he felt as if he wanted to offend again".

Justice McKechnie said the first attempt to release Alvisse into the community failed because the accommodation he had was inadequate "leaving him alone too often, a prey to loneliness and boredom""

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/16984424/judge-blasts-failures-of-sex-offender-support/

May 2013

More Truth about Sexual Offending

"In two previous posts I’ve written about clinician prejudice toward sex offenders and ways to effectively treat sex offenders. It was satisfying to see these blogs being well received, and it is my sincere hope that this effort has helped in some small way to pull back the covers on a topic that is often avoided, overlooked, and/or flat out ignored by the therapeutic community. This third and final (at least for a while) blog on sexual offending is intended to briefly address a few remaining offender-related topics."

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/sex/2013/05/more-truth-about-sexual-offending/

May 2013

Effective (and Ineffective) Treatments for Sexual Offenders

"Are Sex Offenders Treatable?

Last week I wrote about clinician prejudice toward sexual offenders. As part of that writing I introduced the four main categories of sexual offenders:

>Violent offenders
>Fixated child offenders
>Regressed child offenders
>Sexually addicted offenders

I also mentioned the some of the most damaging misconceptions that most people, including many psychotherapy professionals, have about sex offenders.

>All sex offenders are treatable.
>No sex offenders are treatable.
>All sex offenders are sociopaths

None of these beliefs is correct. The reality is that most but not all sex offenders can benefit from proper treatment. In fact, the recidivism rate is actually quite low, provided the offender is paired with the most effective form of treatment. It’s all about good assessment and knowing who needs what and when."

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/sex/2013/05/effective-and-ineffective-treatments-for-sexual-offenders/

April 2013

Clinician Prejudice Toward Sex Offenders

"Perverts and Rapists and Creeps, Oh My!

Clinician Prejudice Toward Sex Offenders A couple of weeks ago my colleague Jenner Bishop posted an open letter on the IITAP (International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals) listserv about clinician prejudice toward sex addicts and sex offenders. Jenner had just come from a “suite meeting” for an office she’d recently rented, at which she’d been bombarded with angry questions from the other therapists about how they were supposed to protect their clients from her “unsupervised” sex addicts and offenders. She had explained that she doesn’t work with violent offenders, and that the offending behaviors of her clients were typically something along the lines of hiring prostitutes and/or looking at illegal pornography – which the other therapists’ clients were probably also doing, even if the therapists weren’t aware of it – but Jenner’s fellow professionals just wouldn’t let it go.

She writes:

"I was shocked. Eventually someone admitted that – despite the landlord sending around an advance email informing tenants the potential new renter is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist – they wish they’d further investigated what a CSAT does, because they’d have informed the landlord that my practice is incompatible with theirs. You know, I just forget. We’re on the front lines of healing such a grossly misunderstood population. And it’s not just the masses, it’s fellow clinicians with these massive prejudices and blind spots.""

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/sex/2013/04/clinician-prejudice-toward-sex-offenders/