Not every sex crime is reported to authorities. This simple fact has caused considerable fear in society, leading to questions about how much we really know about sexual abuse and those who perpetrate it. For those researching sex crimes, it becomes even more complicated: the rate of actual offending (both detected and undetected) appears to vary widely depending on who is being studied, how undetected sexual offending is defined, and how undetected sexual offenses are measured.
Working with justice-involved adults brings many challenges, among which are assessing the likelihood of future harmful acts and forming trusting relationships with clients in order to help them become productive members of society. One challenge that is often overlooked by those working with justice-involved clients is understanding and intervening when clients become suic
Circles of Support & Accountability (CoSA) is a restorative justice-informed initiative intended to assist in the post-release community integration of persons with sexual offense histories after periods of incarceration or other detention. It uses community volunteers trained and supported by locally employed professionals and experts. Since its inception, CoSA has been consistently shown to significantly reduce harm while increasing the likelihood of successful integration of participants into the community. In September 2020, Circles UK launched an innovative new program, Circles ReBoot, which helps individuals who have accessed Child Sexual Exploitation Material, who are typically at high risk to persist in offending and who have high levels of treatment need.
This webinar presents ideas for integrating mindfulness and other brain-based approaches into the treatment of adolescents with histories of harmful behaviors. The ideas incorporate the rigor of science, the beauty of art, the wisdom of reflection, and years of clinical experience in this field. The presenter, Michelle Gourley, first became formally experienced with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in the wake of significant personal life events. This led her to explore how this approach, and others like it, can be used with the clients in her care.
Victim service advocates and treatment providers have the same goal–communities without sexual violence–but tend to operate in isolation from one another. This webinar starts out with acknowledging that public perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs too often prevent those who assess and treat people who have sexually abused from connecting with victim services. This divide can create a narrative about the work we do and what others think of it.
Can traumatic memories and patterns be changed so they no longer haunt a person emotionally? Neuroscience research suggests they can by harnessing the mechanism of memory reconsolidation, the brain’s own process of updating an emotional memory with new meanings and associations. In this webinar, Courtney Armstrong will discuss this exciting discovery and share a simple five-step protocol you can use in treatment to safely reconsolidate traumatic memories and create corrective emotional experiences that change the brain.
Originally pioneered by Paul Gilbert in the UK, compassion focused therapy (CFT) is an integrated, multi-modal approach to treatment that draws from evolutionary, social, developmental, and Buddhist psychology as well as neuroscience. In this webinar, Drs. Hocken and Taylor will discuss CFT and how it can be helpful in working with clients in the criminal justice system.
Anyone who has tried to improve an existing treatment program knows how difficult it can be. This webinar interview shows how one prominent agency implemented the principles of risk, need, and responsivity. It provides ideas for how agencies can best implement these principles and other new methods and models. In this webinar, Nikole Hassen, Clinical Psychologist and Director at the Naval Consolidated Brig Miramar, will discuss the challenges faced when modernizing their treatment program, and the benefits of having done so.
A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was published in early February 2023 found that, in 2021 (at the height of the pandemic), 57% of high school girls reported experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year,” up from 36% in 2011. That’s nearly twice as high as the 29% of males who reported having those feelings in 2021. What’s worse, 30% of the girls surveyed reported seriously considering suicide and 13% attempted suicide one or more times in 2021.
Though well-intentioned, policies and practices regarding sexual offending that are advocated by lawmakers and their constituents all too often result in efforts that are counterproductive for the long-term safety of the community. Just as problematically, they fail to adequately take into account the needs of the victims of abuse and do not adequately promote actions that can help individuals who have abused avoid re-offending.