Treatment Based on Risks
The Case of Jerry
Jerry, a fifty-three-year-old man, is currently serving a twenty-year prison sentence for having been found guilty of raping a girl aged twelve years. He confessed that he has always had a sexual desire for young girls, and he had a hard time controlling this kind of attractiveness. As a result, he ended up committing the crime. While serving his sentence, Jerry has been receiving counseling, which should continue even after his release, which will be in two-week’ time. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis and discussion concerning Jerry’s static 99 results and the appropriate treatment options. The paper also discusses the rational behavioral components linked with Jerry’s treatments, recidivism rates for sexual wrongdoers, and finally, the procedures that could help reduce recidivism.
Static 99 Assessment Results
The Static 99 assessment was created to evaluate adult males who are being released back into the community after serving their jail sentences. The assessment is the most used instrument all over the world. The evaluation measures sex offense, recidivism risk, and the long-term potential of offenders who have committed a sexual crime. Information such as the offender’s age, the release date, criminal history, and the victims’ characteristics, such as gender and relationship to the offender, are used when going through the assessment (Reeves et al., 2018).
Jerry undertook a static 99 assessment to evaluate the risk level of repeating sex assault crime. Based on his age and what he would become after his release from the prison, Jerry scored -1. However, the assessment results indicated three key areas that portrayed Jerry to a high risk in the community. The three areas indicated that he was never related to the victim, never lived with the victim, and also the victim was a stranger to him. After adding up the scores, Jerry had a total of two, which ultimately positions him at Risk Level III (Harris et al., 2017). Therefore, Jerry is an average risk to society. Consequently, he has a high likelihood of being charged or imprisoned in the future for another rape case.
Despite serving a sentence for an extended period, the nature of Jerry’s crime calls for some form of treatment once he is released to the community to reduce the possibility of repeating the sexual assault crime (Harris et al., 2017). In deciding which treatment to offer to Jerry, some of the critical factors to consider will include his sexual background, age, the time frame since the last crime, the intensity of the crime, and his relations with the victim.
Appropriate Treatment Options Based On the Sex Offender’s Risk Level
Finding the best treatment option for all defendants is the most important thing. However, the treatment options for sex assault individuals can be quite a hard task primarily based on the extent of crimes they committed. Therefore, finding the best option is dependent on various variables as well as the consideration of the offender.
Once a male individual is prosecuted for sexual assault, he is arraigned to a corrective facility where he is monitored and evaluated (Reeves et al., 2018). After serving and qualifying the correctional process, the offender is assessed again before he can be prepared for discharge to a treatment program or a fitting facility based on the assessment results. In a situation that the offender is not surveyed and handled legitimately, the chances of recidivism are substantially higher.
One of the best options for Jerry’s case would be community-based treatment. With this option, Jerry will be closely monitored, adequately evaluated, and offered services based on his needs. Having confessed that he has difficulty in controlling his sexual urge to young girls, Jerry would benefit from undertaking sessions on pharmacological treatment alongside intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Under this treatment option, Jerry would be guided by a licensed therapist and would also receive counseling under both individual and group sessions. According to Terry (2013), the cognitive-behavioral therapy works well with offenders for cognitive restructuring, emotional management, prevention of relapse, enhancement of empathy towards others, training of social skills as well as controlling sexual arousal. Also, while individual sessions will help Jerry focus on self, group sessions will offer him an opportunity to learn from others on how to control his sexual urge.
The alternative treatment option for Jerry would be the pharmacological treatment, which should be administered by a licensed psychiatrist. This form of treatment will help Jerry reduce behavior deviancy and his arousal levels. According to Garcia et al. (2013), some of the recommended medications for this individual would include gonadotropin-releasing hormones, steroidal antiandrogens, and antidepressants.
Recidivism Rates for Similar Sex Crimes
Recidivism Rates for offenders that do not go through the treatment process after their release from prison are usually higher compared to those that undergo and complete the treatment process. According to Daly (2008), out of all the sex offenders that have finished their treatment program, only five percent were re-arrested for the same crime. However, eleven percent of those who had failed to undertake the treatment program had been re-arrested. For other crimes, Daly (2008) noted that only thirteen percent of those who had finalized the treatment were arrested for new crimes. Forty-two percent of those offenders that failed to complete the treatment program were re-arrested. Therefore, sex offenders who had undertaken a complete treatment program were less likely to be arrested over the same crime. The treatment options for these offenders seemed to be effective hence lower rates of recidivism.
Treatments That Helped Reduce Recidivism
Cognitive-behavioral treatment is considered to be the most effective treatment option in reducing recidivism, especially among sexual offenders. The cognitive-behavioral option works well on sexual offenders by improving their old habits and ways of thinking. Through this approach, sexual offenders adapt to new behaviors and new ways of thinking. An alternative approach that has been identified to be effective in reducing recidivism is the use of medical treatment (Terry, 2013). A good example is the use of pharmacological treatment among sexual offenders to reduce their deviant thoughts and lower their sex drive.
Conclusion
In ensuring that Jerry overcomes his sex drive for young girls and chances of recidivism once he is released, he should be given a lot of support and help from counselors, friends, and families. Having such people around him would eliminate loneliness, and they would also motivate him to live a better life by avoiding the crime. However, Jerry should also be self-motivated and develop the capacity to fight any sexual desires for young girls.
References
Daly, R. (2008, September). Treatment and Reentry Practices for Sex Offenders: An Overview of States. Retrieved March 17, 2019, from https://www.csom.org/pubs/Treatment%20and%20Reentry%20for%20SO%20an%20overview%20of%20states.PDF
Garcia, F. D., Delavenne, H. G., Assumpção, A. d., & Thibaut, F. (2013, April 10). Pharmacologic Treatment of Sexual Offenders WIth Paraphilic Disorder. Current Psychiatric Reports, 15(5), 356. doi:10.1007/s11920-013-0356-5
Harris, A. J. R., Phenix, A., Thornton, D., & Hanson, R. K. (2017). Static-99 coding rules revised-2016. Solicitor General Canada, Corrections Directorate.
Reeves, S. G., Ogloff, J. R., & Simmons, M. (2018). The predictive validity of the Static-99, Static-99R, and Static-2002/R: Which one to use?. Sexual Abuse, 30(8), 887-907.
Terry, J. K. (2013). Sexual offenses and offenders: Theory, practice, and policy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.