Treatment of Sexual Offending - Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings

How to Improve Outcomes: An International Summit

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:52:45 +0000

I accepted an invitation to join ODIN Intelligence to assist a team of educators teaching probation and parole officers to improve outcomes for individuals who commit sexual crimes.

My invitation came from Justin Moyer, an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) law enforcement officer from California, who teaches about registry and supervision issues. Coupled with his own program, Justin felt my expertise in the psychology of sexual offending, trauma, and officer burn out would nicely round out the summit.

The Summit’s Location and Purpose

The Barbados Probation Department organized the summit and hosted it on their beautiful island. We taught a tailor-made version of our program to everyone from probation officers to judges.

The government of Barbados does not yet have specialized treatment or supervision for individuals who have committed sexual crimes. They wanted to learn what they could from us to apply it to their own system and culture.

More Studies are Needed to Improve Outcomes

Preparing for this was different from any other program I have taught. Therefore, I was acutely aware of one very glaring fact:

The majority of the research on people who commit sex crimes is from North American or Western European countries. Consequently, the subjects are predominantly white.

When it comes to risk assessment, the same thing applies. The majority of subjects used to create risk assessment measures such as the STATIC-99R are white. There has even been some research published that suggests that these measures overestimate risk in black men.

Therefore, to improve outcomes we must research and validate culturally relevant data.

As professionals, our time is valuable. Dr. Weeks created the Mitigation Aide Research Archive because there isn’t enough focused, data-backed research available in easily digestible formats.

Diverse Attendance

When we received our agendas for the event, we quickly realized this was more important than we initially thought!

The event started with a very formal opening ceremony including remarks from an elected official and the heads of the Probation Department. The National TV and newspaper covered the event.

Barbados News Article-rotated Download

The Barbadian Probation Department invited a very inclusive list of attendees. There were over thirty people who attended including:

L-R Justin Moyer, Dr. Jennifer Weeks, Angela Dixon, and Denise Agard

Probation officers
Lawyers
Child welfare workers
Prison treatment providers
Social workers
Judges

Unfortunately, there were no law enforcement officers who chose to attend.

Attendees expressed shock when we noted that such a diverse group of professions gathered together would likely not happen in the US. I am hardly able to imagine judges showing up to a training with probation officers, social workers, and treatment providers.

It’s truly a shame, because the richness of comments, questions and insights from having so many people familiar with so many different aspects of the field was amazing.

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Improve Outcomes Through Cultural Awareness

Any time you teach in a different place culture has a huge impact. I find this fascinating, as a therapist with a research background.

I teach primarily about internet-based sex crimes in the US. For instance, CSAM possession, online solicitation, and luring.

The criminality in Barbados was different. They experienced a greater amount of hands-on sexual abuse of both children and adults.

There was a feeling among some of the attendees that a deep cultural misogyny affects this difference.

Licensed Professional Counselors: Dr. Weeks’ course Sex Addiction, Erotic Conflict, Moral Incongruence looks at what can be mistaken for sex addiction and offers treatment considerations for distinguishing those problems.

Sexual Addiction Treatment Services has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7250. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Sexual Addiction Treatment Services is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Research Deep Dive

I emphasized during my teaching that research and risk assessments were not normed on their culture. Furthermore, the research didn’t include people of color. Therefore, I emphasized that this was an amazing research opportunity for the clinicians and probation officers planning on implementing risk assessment procedures.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks and Justin Moyer

When there is nothing in place, validated measures are likely better than nothing, but a culturally sensitive measure would be something to really work towards.

Personal Reflections

One of my favorite private discussions was with a treatment provider at the men’s prison who had recently been accepted into a Ph.D. program. During the four days of talks he made the decision that sex crimes would be the focus of his research. He wanted to start working to address the dearth of data about Caribbean nations.

At that point, as someone who loves to help cultivate careers, I felt like my work was done.

I’m super excited to possibly collaborate with him and see what great things he does in the future!

I feel invigorated by being part of this summit. I rarely ever hear this level of excitement or enthusiasm from US audiences. Despite the desire to create positive change in their communities.

I feel the energy from that room was a balm to my own professional burnout. But, perhaps, teaching mere feet from the most gorgeous beach had something to do with it as well!

Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses? stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post How to Improve Outcomes: An International Summit first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

How to do Primary Prevention and More

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 18:59:44 +0000

My reading over coffee this morning was a great article in Time Magazine about moving the US toward the primary prevention of child sexual abuse, a front page Wall Street Journal article about child predators using TikTok to gain access to victims and my first moderately threatening troll comments on a webinar on my YouTube page.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

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Primary Prevention vs Secondary Prevention

Let’s start with the Time Magazine article. This article, entitled America Has been going about stopping child sex abuse the wrong way, was written by Elizabeth Letourneau and Luke Malone.

Elizabeth Letourneau is the Director of the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at John Hopkins. Luke Malone is an award winning journalist who writes about child sexual abuse and victimization.

Reading this article this morning felt very validating.

When I teach to LEO or other mental health professionals, I discuss how the US is very good at secondary prevention but not so good at primary prevention. Meaning, once we catch someone AFTER they have abused a child, the system is relatively good at holding them accountable. That includes: mandating treatment during incarceration and/or after while the person is on probation or parole.

This is secondary prevention. We work hard to prevent ANOTHER sexual assault from happening.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

How should we do Primary Prevention?

Primary prevention, meaning we prevent the FIRST sexual assault from happening is not something our system is very good at.

Much of the teaching puts the onus on potential victims to stop potential assault rather than putting the responsibility on the abuser. This would be primary prevention.

Some other countries have done a better job at this and I point to Project Dunkelfeld in Germany. There, a person who is concerned they may offend against a child can call a program and receive treatment. The treatment program is publicly advertised and funded.

In the United States, for every $1 spent toward prevention research, $2700 is spent on incarcerating offenders. They also discuss current research projects that are working on ways of improving and increasing primary prevention in the US.

The authors have a book coming out at some point which I look forward to reading.

Want to learn more about prevention? These articles explore primary prevention, minor attraction, stigma, and ways to improve outcomes before harm occurs.

Child Predators on TikTok

This app has made it big! They made it to the front page of the Wall Street Journal, a paper noted more for discussing financial markets than sexual abuse.

The WSJ featured an article discussing how TikTok has quickly become an avenue for child abusers to find and groom victims.

Those of us in the field have known this for some time.

It’s good to see it make the front page. Perhaps parents will read the article and start to monitor what their children are doing on the app. Frequently, there is little parental oversight on social media apps which leads some children to be vulnerable to predation.

If you’re unfamiliar with sextortion, check out Dr. Jen’s article How to Protect Your Child from Sextortion.

YouTube Trolls

Finally, to my first troll. I awoke this morning to some comments on a webinar on my YouTube channel about treating individuals with pedophilia. The comments were not surprising, but disappointing.

The person commented that I was an “intellectual” who should be “purged.” They made traditionally stereotypical comments about people who commit sex crimes needing to be beat up or killed. Though, in my mind, I made many replies, I have long ago learned that social media repartee with folks with strong but uninformed opinions goes nowhere.

So, to end my morning coffee, I simply reported them for making threats. Then I began my day of working in secondary prevention of sexual abuse.

This post contains affiliate links. The author or blog owner may earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby

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Are Denial and Minimization Always Bad? New Perspectives

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 13:11:21 +0000

Have you ever minimized your actions? Or even denied all or part of them? How do denial and minimization reflect on the accused?

Guest Blog by Patti Hoyt LPC CAADC CSAT

What are Denial and Minimization?

Denial is a small child saying “I didn’t do it,” when a parent walks into a messy room. Maybe, you say you completed a task, but in reality, you haven’t started it.

Minimization is a small child saying “It isn’t that bad,” when they get a poor grade or you saying “It isn’t that big of a deal,” when you forget to bring something you said you would.

Denial and minimization are both types of cognitive distortions. We all deny or minimize behaviors at some point in our lives.

Struggling with excessive sexual thoughts, urges, or activities that are causing you distress? Take the free, online Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale (SSAS) and get a link to share with your therapist.

Denial and Minimization in Forensic Psychology

Yet, in the forensic world, denial and minimization are viewed as a negative behaviors and cause for concern.

They are often seen as:

Barriers to accountability
Barriers to treatment response
A predictor for reoffense

Treatment often focuses on denial and minimization as a means to reduce risk of reoffending. However, the research on denial and minimization has yielded inconsistent results over the years.

Some studies have shown addressing denial for certain populations reduces risk of reoffending for a few, but not necessarily all.

Multiple researchers have been exploring the question “What is the function of denial?”

Why do people deny all or part of an event?

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

According to the Research

Current research by Gabrielle B. Lucente and Kevin L. Nunes of Carleton University explores the function of denial.

They note denial is an adaptive response to a person being charged with a crime. They propose denial should be addressed as a barrier to treatment rather than a deficit to be addressed.

The researchers have indicated multiple possibilities for the use of these cognitive distortions by people who have been charged with a crime. Through their research, they have identified what they call the Adaptational Model.

Why do People Deny or Minimize?

People deny or minimize their actions for some of the following reasons:

To continue offending behavior or continue to manipulate situations (psychopathy)
- If I don’t tell, I can keep doing it, and no one will ever know.

Protect self-esteem
- If I don’t tell, people will continue to like me. I will still have friends and family.

Avoid consequences of action
- If I don’t tell, I will still have a job or people will continue to talk to me.

Distance self from negative label like sexual offender
- If I don’t tell, I won’t have the shame of being labeled negatively.

Protect identity
- This behavior is completely out of character and something I would never do it, thus I cannot tell.

Avoid negative evaluations from others
- If I don’t tell, I won’t be judged.

The more a person has at stake, such as losing friends, family, employment, sense of self, or increasing self-loathing, the more likely it is that they will minimize or deny their actions. The role of shame often plays a huge part in denial and minimization.

Does the Research Recommend Denial and Minimization?

This research does not give permission to anyone to deny or minimize any behavior.

What it does is give insight to why these thinking patterns can occur.

Changing how we look at denial and minimization allows treatment providers to explore barriers to a person’s responsiveness to treatment.

If a treatment provider starts to ask about the “Why” behind denial or minimization, they can help the client begin to work through the underlying mechanisms for the distorted thinking.

Guest Blog by Patti Hoyt LPC CAADC CSAT

Are you looking for more reputable, data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

The post Are Denial and Minimization Always Bad? New Perspectives first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

Sex Offender Treatment: Helpful or Placebo?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 13:29:45 +0000

In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person convicted of a sex crime is mandated to sex offender treatment.

This treatment tends to be group therapy primarily being Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT.

As the leader of a community of treatment providers, I am always striving to improve my practices. Therefore, I use evidenced based treatment modalities and the interventions best suited to our clients to decrease risks of recidivism.

So, when the question of whether or not what we are doing is helpful or harmful comes up, I pay attention.

Meta-Analysis of Sex Offender Treatment Outcomes

The keynote address Thursday morning at this year’s ATSA conference was by Dr. Teresa Gannon.

She presented her recently published meta-analysis of the effectiveness of sexual offender treatment. It was recently published in Clinical Psychology Review and is open access.

She looked at all types of violent offending but spoke this morning, specifically, about treatment for sexual offending.

There have been some studies that have been published that have provided a grim picture of treatment. Most specifically, Dr. Gannon points to a 2017 report from the UK Ministry of Justice that stated that people who had committed sexual crimes and had treatment had a 25% increase in their rates of recidivism.

To those of us who do this work, that’s a shocking number. No treatment provider wants to do more harm than good. Furthermore, none of us would ever knowingly do anything that would increase the risk of harm to anyone.

Details of the Meta-analysis

Enter Dr. Gannon and her colleagues. They embarked on a meta-analysis of 70 studies on offending behavior. Furthermore, they analyzed variables that could influence treatment outcomes.

Their work asked three specific questions:

Does offense specific treatment influence recidivism risk?
Is a trained psychology professional needed?
What program variables are important for success?

Results of the Study on Sex Offender Treatment

The results of the meta-analysis were both encouraging and enlightening.

Over a 6 year follow up period, individuals who engaged in sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 9.5%.

Those who did not attend sex offender specific treatment reoffended at a rate of 14.1%.

Sex offenders who attended treatment were 32.6% less likely to reoffend than those who did not attend. This result is the encouraging part.

Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!

What has the Greatest Impact on Sex Offender Treatment?

The first important question involved the presence of a licensed psychology professional. Was there a licensed professional involved in provision of treatment?

This was broken down into unclear/none meaning that a psychology professional was not directly involved with providing treatment or it was unclear. The other categories were inconsistent and consistent.

The results indicated that treatment is more effective when a psychology professional is consistently hands on in the treatment process.

What Other Factors Impact Recidivism?

The last set of factors investigated involved actual variables in the treatment program.

It was found that offenders who attended group only had better outcomes than those who attended group and individual therapy.

Those programs where a licensed psychology professional provided supervision had better outcomes.

Programs that used arousal conditioning had lower recidivism rates.

Programs that didn’t use polygraph testing had better outcomes than those that did use it.

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Takeaways for the Sex Offender Treatment Study

The meta-analysis posits that, we need to think about several key elements.

The most effective treatment programs had the following characteristics:

A licensed psychology professional with expertise in treating sexual offenders, who is hands on and consistent in the treatment.
Inappropriate sexual interest is addressed.
It is group based and supervision by a psychology professional is provided.
The polygraph is not used in treatment.

On a side note, the study indicated that the countries with the best outcomes for treated offenders were Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

This is the most up to date meta-analysis of sexual offender treatment efficacy published. It is the first to provide some evidence for the efficacy of arousal conditioning. It also indicates that it is not just treatment that is effective but treatment provided by individuals with expertise in the field and offer supervision to treatment providers.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? consult with a professional.

Are you looking for more reputable, data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.

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Sentence Mitigation: Is it Just Faux Remorse?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 11:17:59 +0000

I recently posted on social media about my clinic’s intensive program for sexual offenders and how it aides sentence mitigation. I got accused of providing lighter sentences for financial gain.

I’m angry, to say the least. I take our work with people who have committed sex crimes very seriously because I consider it sexual abuse prevention work.

I’ve decided to put my emotions to the side and write something informative about sentence mitigation.

What is Sentence Mitigation?

I’d like to point out that what we’re talking about is not the trial. We’ve already determined guilt and we’re now determining the punishment for the crime(s) committed.

Judges are obligated to take all information about that person into consideration when being sentenced for a crime.

Prosecution’s role is to present evidence of all of the aggravating factors in the case. They use these factors to argue for stronger and harsher sentences.

Aggravating factors can include:

Prior offenses
Vulnerable victims
Hate crimes
Violence, etc.

Defense attorneys present facts about the person supporting a less harsh sentence.

Any facts presented for sentence mitigation are not related to the guilt of the person. They’ve acknowledged what they have done (pled guilty).

Mitigating factors can be in place prior to the offending such as:

Lack of criminal record
Mental illness
Addiction
Physical illness
History of abuse

Other mitigating factors are those the occur after the offense has happened. These can be:

Acceptance of responsibility
Rehabilitation post offense (treatment)
Cooperation with law enforcement
Addiction
Mental illness, etc.

Mitigating factors do NOT excuse a crime but help provide an explanation.

As professionals, our time is valuable. Dr. Weeks created the Mitigation Aide Research Archive because there isn’t enough focused, data-backed research available in easily digestible formats.

Therapy as a Sentence Mitigation Tool

Do defense attorneys suggest clients go to therapy so they have some fuel for sentence mitigation?

In a word, yes.

Many of our clients are referred to us by their attorneys after they have had a visit from the police or the FBI. This happens, basically, no matter the type of offense.

DUI?

Get a drug and alcohol assessment.

Domestic violence charge?

Do some classes.

Assault charge?

Complete an anger management program.

What Your Therapist Knows

What most people might not know, but all treatment providers know, is very few people self-refer for any kind or offending.

In over 10 years of practice ownership, I can count on one hand the number of clients who came to treatment because they felt they had a problem.

Many clients are pressured into treatment. This pressure may come from a partner, spouse, employer, or the police.

People don’t self-refer for many reasons: shame, fear, or stigma. They wait until they’re caught. Whether they’re watching pornography at work, getting a DUI, getting caught in an affair, running up the credit cards with gambling debt, etc.

Do you believe your sexual behaviors are compulsive or harmful to you or others? Then you should take the CSBD-19 free, validated self-assessment tool.

Doing the Work, Not Just Showing Up

The act of going to therapy itself does not help the defense attorney make a mitigation argument.

What happens in therapy can help a defense attorney make a mitigation argument.

If a client is referred by an attorney for treatment, the initial thought might be something like “Okay, this will look good to the judge.”

Any good therapist will know whether or not a client is taking the therapy work seriously. If the client is just biding time, trying to look good for the judge, it’s reflected in the treatment reports that go to the attorney.

Trust me, bad treatment reports never make it to court.

Same thing for evaluations that deem a client high risk to re-offend. They hardly ever see the light of day in a court room.

Changing motivations

What gets a person in the door of a therapy office isn’t always what keeps them there.

I, and other treatment providers, aim to help the offender move from the shocked stage into looking deeply at their actions and motivations.

Although it’s popular to believe all people who commit sexual crimes are deviant monsters who deserve to die, most people who are committing these crimes know they have a problem, feel a good deal of remorse, and want to do what they can to avoid hurting anyone else.

Now we see how an attorney referral for sentence mitigation can turn into an offender into a healthy, productive member of society.

Do you believe you have an online pornography addiction? Take the free Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT) and have the results to speak with your therapist.

Final Reflections on Sentence Mitigation

Sitting at the end of a day filled with many emotions, I reflect on the work I do. I am proud of the work I and my staff do with this population.

I realize I work with people the world would rather discard. Many people think they don’t deserve treatment.

It would be great if more people self-referred, I don’t really care if it’s an attorney that gets them through the door.

Those of us who work with sexual offenders are doing prevention work.

My final words are not mine but those of one of my wonderful colleagues: Everyone deserves treatment. Period. Full Stop.

References:

Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Consult with a professional.

Have you found yourself in legal trouble due to your sexual behavior? Seek assistance before the court mandates it, with Sexual Addiction Treatment Services.

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You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: Do You Take a Polygraph?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 14:21:16 +0000

If you have been following our blog series, you know that we are trying to use our years of experience to help you find the best counsel and treatment possible for the issues that brought you into the legal system. This post may be the only controversial one of the series.

Should you take a polygraph test?

When most people think of a polygraph, they think about something they saw on TV or a lie detector. The polygraph is not a lie detector but a device that measures physiological responses. It is often not admissible in criminal court (though it is in some places and can be used for probation violations). So why am I even talking about it?

Despite it’s issues, the polygraph is routinely used in the treatment of sexual offenders and is considered a standard of practice. So even if you don’t do a polygraph pre-trial, you will while you are on probation. While on probation it is used as a therapeutic “tool” to assess whether the person on probation is following rules and regulations of probation and/or keeping any secrets from treatment and probation. It is a measure used to gather information.

Again, why on earth am I talking about you possibly taking a polygraph examination before you go to court? Just like it is used as a tool after adjudication, we can use it as a tool prior to sentencing. In our geographic area, the FBI likes to ask people they are investigating (often within hours of knocking on your door in the wee hours of the morning) to voluntarily consent to a polygraph test. What are they looking for by doing this? They are seeking any evidence that you may be a mixed offender. A mixed offender is someone who is being investigated or arrested for a cybersex crime that ALSO has committed a hands-on sexual offense in their lifetime. It will come as no surprise that many people to take this polygraph test right away don’t do very well. There are many reasons for that, anxiety, fear and absolutely no preparation.

As someone being investigated for a sex crime, why might it be helpful to you to do a polygraph? Honestly, for the same reasons that the FBI does them. Research now tells us that the assumption that people who look at child pornography must also be contact offenders is false. However, it is hard for a court or an evaluator to just take someone’s word for it. Though it is not admissible in court, if you take and pass a sexual history polygraph and have no history of contact offending, this has a favorable effect on your risk of recidivism.

Guidelines for taking a polygraph before sentencing

Make sure your attorney is on board with this decision. As with an evaluation, you can do this through your attorney so if you don’t have a favorable result from a polygraph it will be protected under attorney client privilege.
Find a polygrapher who is trained, accredited and familiar with working with sexual offenders and giving sexual history polygraphs. You want to take a Sexual History Polygraph.
Do your homework. This means that you and your therapist need to spend a great deal of time going through your sexual history with a fine-tooth comb. This takes time. People often have trouble on polygraph tests because they don’t really go through their history. Work through your sexual history from the first time you kissed someone through the moment you are ready to take the polygraph.
BE HONEST. It is best to be honest and pass than to keep and hold your secrets and have a deception indicated. Also remember, that though this may be a tool to help you in sentence mitigation, it is ultimately about you getting honest with yourself to help your treatment and growth into a better human!

Shame lives in secrecy. If there are no more secrets you can start to work on shame reduction. This means that the value of the polygraph can be something more than just another measure your attorney or psychosexual evaluator can use in sentence mitigation.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks is the owner of Sexual Addiction Treatment Services. She specializes in the treatment of sexual offenders and cybersex offenders. Through her program she provides psychosexual evaluations, treatment and expert witness testimony. SATS also offers coaching services for those people who are being investigated but are not in Pennsylvania.

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You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: The Psychosexual Evaluation

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 14:19:31 +0000

So far in our series of articles we have talked about finding a good attorney and a good therapist. The next step in the process is to talk to your attorney about a psychosexual evaluation. In most states and in Federal cases, the prosecution will have you undergo an evaluation with a therapist who works either for or on behalf of the state, county or Federal government. It is normally always a good idea to have one done by a psychologist who is not working for the organization that is prosecuting you.

First, what is a psychosexual evaluation? The evaluation is comprised of an interview with a psychologist, a lot of psychological testing and a review of all forensic documents related to your case. What tests you take often depends on the clinician who is doing the evaluation. These objective measures will test for factors that may have both influenced your committing the crime you are accused of and may influence you to commit the crime again. For example, you will likely do some type of personality test to see if you have any mental health diagnoses that influenced your crime such as depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, etc. You will also likely be asked to take some test that will assess your likelihood of having a substance abuse problem, as this is sometimes correlated with certain types of crimes.

How do you find the right person to conduct the psychosexual evaluation? If you have an attorney, he or she may have a psychologist that they work with closely and will refer you to that person. If you are looking for this person on your own, there are a few things you should be on the lookout for. First, you need someone who has a Ph.D. and has been trained to give the types of tests that you need. Not all therapists have the training to be qualified to administer certain psychological tests. Second, the psychologist who performs your evaluation needs to be experienced in performing psychological evaluations for sex crimes. Not all forensic psychologists work with sex crimes. Some, for example, perform evaluations for competency to stand trial. Third, your evaluator should be a member of ATSA and familiar with the latest research related to offenders of your type of crime.

A question I often am asked is “what happens if the evaluation says something bad?” My first response to this question is that there is nothing about an evaluation that is “bad.” An evaluation is a combination of facts, testing results and opinion based on all those elements. However, if you are concerned about the outcome of the evaluation, there is a solution. If the evaluator is retained by your attorney and paid for by your attorney, the report then falls under attorney-client privilege as client work product. This way, if your attorney does not feel that the evaluation will help you, he or she will not use it during your sentencing.

In most cases, the psychosexual evaluation is used for sentence mitigation. Your attorney may use a favorable evaluation in the plea negotiation process beforehand. Your psychosexual evaluation will be part of the pre-sentence memorandum that your attorney files with the court prior to your sentencing. This report will give the judge information as to some of the reasons why you committed your crime as well as provide the judge with some information about your risk of recidivism (commit another crime). The judge will take all this information into account when they are determining your sentence.

If your attorney does not suggest an evaluation, ask them about it. Whether or not you need an evaluation or if it may be helpful will depend on your case and your jurisdiction. We provide these suggestions as they are helpful in our geographic area of Pennsylvania.

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You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: What to look for in a therapist

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Mon, 02 Jul 2018 14:14:02 +0000

In my first blog in this series, I wrote about the fact that getting a therapist is one of the first things you need to do when you are under investigation for a cybersex crime. I briefly mentioned that you will need a specific type of therapist in that post and I am going to expand on what you need to look for in a therapist here.

Given how expensive this entire process is, one’s inclination is to just find a therapist who takes their insurance, can help with the anxiety and depression they are experiencing, though not necessarily specializing in treating people engaging in cybersex crimes. I understand that thought process. However, there are some things you need to know.

Many therapists will not work with sex offenders. You would think or hope that someone who works as a mental health counselor would be able to work with anyone without prejudice. Unfortunately, that is not true. Research studies have shown that a high percentage of therapists will not work with someone who is attracted to children or has engaged in sexual behavior with a child (even if it is online). This means that if you go to see just any therapist, you do not know if you are meeting with someone who is personally comfortable working with you. If they are not, ethically they are to refer you to someone else. However, not all therapists will do this. This means that you may get advice biased by their own opinions about sexual offenders and often this is not accurate or helpful.

Many therapists are not comfortable talking in depth about sex and sexuality. If you are going to really get to the root of the behavior that led to you engaging in a cybersex crime, you are going to be talking in depth about sexual behaviors. This means that the therapist you choose to work with needs to be completely comfortable in their own sexuality and able to nonjudgmentally sit with the sexual behaviors of others. Again, just as not all therapists can work with sex offenders, not all therapists are very comfortable talking about sex and sexuality. That might sound odd, but it is true.

Most therapists are not trained in treating sexual behavior that crosses into offending. In the process of graduate training to become a therapist, unless a person knows they want to specialize in treating sexual behavior problems from the get go, they are likely to receive limited training in the topic. Normally all counseling programs make students take one course on human sexuality. That’s it. This means that a general therapist will not have the training or knowledge to help you with the specific issues that brought you to being investigated for a cybersex crime.

What do you need to look for in a therapist?

A therapist who has experience working with sexual behaviors. Most therapists will have listed somewhere on their website or Psychology Today profile what types of issues they work with. If a therapist states that they work with sexual issues such as pornography addiction, sexual dysfunction, or other sexual health problems, they are going to be comfortable talking to you about details of sexual issues.

A therapist who has experience working with sexual offending behaviors such as child pornography, sexting minors, online solicitation, etc. This will require a phone call or an email to the therapist and direct questioning. Have they worked with people in your exact situation before? If they have not, you might want to continue searching for a therapist who as at least seen a few people who are in your situation.

A therapist who has specific training, certification or professional membership to organizations that work with sexual behavior problems. The best thing is to find a therapist who is a member of ATSA. This stands for the Association for Treatment of Sex Abusers. This is an international organization that is entirely dedicated to research and treatment of people who engage in sexual offending behavior. The website atsa.com has a referral page where you can find a therapist. A second tier choice would be to find someone who is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist through IITAP (www.iitap.com) or trained through SASH (www.sash.net). If you find a clinician who is experienced in treating your issue and they are not certified or a member of ATSA please make sure they stay informed of the latest treatment research and trends.

Again, if you are reading this you are in a very particular situation and need a very particular therapist to help you. You need a therapist who is comfortable discussing sexuality in all forms, is willing to work with people who are attracted to children, has experience in treating people with sexual offending behavior and is up to date on the latest research in the field.

The post You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: What to look for in a therapist first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.

You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: Now What?

Dr. Jennifer Weeks — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 02:26:56 +0000

If you are reading this blog, either you or someone you care about has recently been visited by the police and are under investigation for a cybersex crime. You are likely in shock and are likely panicking. After many years of working with people in this situation, I have learned a thing or two of what to do next. Even though you might be panicked, immobilized, in shock or depressed, you must take action.

Here is what you need to do right away.

Hire an attorney

If you have the money or can rustle up the money, you need to immediately hire an attorney. I will talk about what to look for in an attorney in a later post. What you need to know in these first moments is that you should not just hire the first attorney you talk to. Talk to several criminal defense attorneys. Find out how much experience they have working with cybersex cases. Make sure that the attorney has experience working with cybersex cases at your level. If the FBI is investigating you, you need an attorney who has experience in Federal Court. If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, you are going to have to be your own advocate during this process. A court appointed attorney won’t have the time to give you what a private attorney will. You will have to do some of the leg work yourself.

Make sure you are safe

When I say make sure you are safe, I mean make sure you are emotionally safe. People who are investigated for cybersex crimes frequently feel immediately suicidal. The majority of cybersex offenders have never been in trouble with the law before and the entire process can cause a shame spiral. If you feel suicidal, go to the emergency room or find a hospital where you can go for a few days to ensure your emotional health and well-being. If you are the loved one of someone who is under investigation be aware that they may be experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Find a therapist

Now is not the time to just go down the list of in-network treatment providers from your insurance. You don’t just need a therapist, you need a specialist. The therapist you see should have experience treating people in your exact situation. They should have experience treating sexual offenders and perhaps pornography addicts. While many therapists might be able to help you work through the anxiety and depression that will occur related to the investigation, if they don’t have experience working with the specific sexual behaviors or the court process, they will not be as effective as someone who specializes.

The criminal justice system works at a rather slow pace. You will have time to deal with all of what comes after the investigation. I will address many of these things in further posts.

If you are newly investigated please do things now and start to let experienced professionals help you through this process.

Dr. Jennifer Weeks is a Clinically Certified Sex Offender Treatment Specialist and an expert witness in the areas of sexual offending, cybersex offending and sexual addiction. For more information on her services please go to the Sexual Addiction Treatment Services website.

The post You’re Being Investigated for a Cybersex Crime: Now What? first appeared on Dr. Jen's Recovery Readings.