“What Did I Miss?” When a Client Re-Offends

Recorded on January 27, 2022

A special 90-minute webinar conversation!

Guest Speakers: Laurie Rose Kepros, JD, Shoshanna Must, Ph.D., and Tyffani Monford Dent, PsyD

Despite the many scientifically established reasons for optimism (for example, generally low recidivism rates), some individuals who have committed sexual harm do re-offend. Moreover, sexual re-offending happens even when the client is under supervision, in treatment, or has been successfully discharged. The experience is never easy for officers, attorneys, and mental health clinicians and leaves them wondering what went wrong.

Drawing on case examples, this webinar conversation examines re-offending from four perspectives: The clinician (Shoshanna Must), the client’s legal representatives (Laurie Rose Kepros), the administrators and programs involved (David Prescott), and considerations for when therapists or clients are Persons of Color –specifically those who come from traditionally marginalized and disproportionately incarcerated communities (Tyffani Dent). It addresses the effects of re-offense on the professionals who worked with offenders and explores ways that professionals can cope with these setbacks.


Laurie Rose Kepros, JD
Director of Sexual Litigation, Colorado Office of the State Public Defender

Laurie Rose Kepros is the Director of Sexual Litigation for the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender where she trains and advises over 1,000 lawyers and other staff statewide in their representation of indigent adults and juveniles accused or convicted of sexual crimes. In over 20 years as a public defender, she has tried and consulted on more than five thousand sexual offense cases. She has served on dozens of subcommittees of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board and Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, and, per the appointment of Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, on the Subcommittee of the Judicial Proceedings Panel which advised the United States Congress on law and policy related to sexual assault in the military. Ms. Kepros was the 2017 recipient of the Olom Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a defense attorney by the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar.


Shoshanna Must, PhD
Evaluation Coordinator and Clinician, Empire State Forensics

Shoshanna Must is a forensic psychologist who practices in the New York City area, specializing in the evaluation and treatment of persons with sexual behavioral problems.  Dr. Must serves as evaluation coordinator and clinician at Empire State Forensics, a private practice that has awarded contracts from the Office of Mental Health, and Federal Probation.  She serves on the board of NYS ATSA. Her current research interests are in gender specific issues in the forensic psychology field. She has a co-authored book chapter on pregnancy and forensic work in Women in Criminal Justice: A Guidebook for Navigating Professional Challenges


Tyffani Monford Dent, PsyD
Licensed Psychologist, Monford Dent Consulting

Dr. Tyffani Monford Dent is in private practice. Dr. Dent is President-Elect of ATSA. Dr. Dent has served as a consultant and trainer under various federal and state grants in the areas of sexual violence in juvenile correctional systems, and prevention/response to campus sexual assault as well as having provided mental health trainings and served as a panelist and keynote speaker at conferences focused on culturally-informed mental health services, gender-responsive treatment, the school-to-prison pipeline and black girls, educating black girls in white spaces, intersectionality and social justice work throughout the United States. Dr. Dent’s primary area of interests are sexual violence prevention and intervention on the continuum, the role of intersectionality in the lives of black and brown girls/women, and culturally informed work with those within the juvenile justice system.

Comments 5

  1. I am concerned over the direction of this field. The liberal left agenda seems to be leading the charge here. I don’t know how appropriate it is when we all want to intervene on sexual abuse. I will like to listen in though.

  2. What Did I Miss?” When a Client Re-Offends. Question about CEUs. Know there are none and that is fine. Will I get some form of confirmation if I attend so I can ask Ohio counselor board for post approval? Luckily my license just renewed so I have two years but…

    Thanks
    JC

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi, John,

      Thank you for your interest in the Safer Talk webinar series!

      As you mentioned, we currently do not offer CE credits for these webinar conversations. However, Safer Society can provide you with a Certificate of Attendance if you are present for the entire webinar. After you attend, you can request a certificate by emailing: webinars@safersociety.org

      If you have any further questions, please let us know.

      Kind regards,

      Sarah Snow Haskell

  3. This was an informative webinar and I appreciate Safer Society’s continued endeavor in providing affordable education and collaboration with topics related to those who sexually offend. However as a probation supervisor I was very disappointed related to the lack of representation from an actual community supervision professional for this discussion. A client re-offending is what keeps probation, parole up at night and their perspective is invaluable. There was a major gap of information related to the the community supervision/case management perspective and disappointed that Safer Society did not seek out representation from this discipline – there are a lot of great ones out there!

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