Evaluating Sex Offenders: A Manual for Civil Commitments and Beyond [Paperback]

Dennis M. Doren (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0761921141 | ISBN-13: 978-0761921141 | Edition: 1st

 

Evaluating Sex Offenders is the first and only "how to" book describing the complete sex offender civil commitment evaluation. Aimed at helping practitioners, clinicians, counselors, and parole officers assess risk and evaluate offenders who have been convicted of a sex crime, the text offers readers a step-by-step description of what examiners need to know, including information gathering, interviewing offenders, and writing reports. Chapter topics include: defining risk; data gathering; diagnostic issues; recidivism base rates; risk factor lists; actuarial scales; instrumentation (violent and sexual); the evaluation report; presenting in court; ethical issues.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 1st edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761921141
• ISBN-13: 978-0761921141
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #837,063 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful, practical guide for assessment, April 13, 2003

By 

Eric G. Mart (Manchester, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evaluating Sex Offenders: A Manual for Civil Commitments and Beyond (Paperback)

Evaluating Sex Offenders: A Manual for Civil Commitmemts and Beyond
is an excellent guide for mental health professionals who do this type of work. While the focus is on understanding the civil commitments laws which apply to some states with such laws, the book has broader utility. Dr. Doren does a fine job of explaining his model of offender risk assessment and providing professionals with the means of doing forensically defensable evaluations. This book will be read with interest by anyone working with sexual offenders.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent resource!, June 9, 2006

By 

Robert W. Smith "Robert Smith, Ph.D." (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Evaluating Sex Offenders: A Manual for Civil Commitments and Beyond (Paperback)

dr. doren provides an excellent resource for the professional conducting civil commitment evaluations of sex offenders. he provides a fully sufficient review of relevant laws across the states that had civil commitment laws in 2002. he provides an excellent, detailed, methodical approach for the clinician conducting such evaluations. he discusses very practical implementation issues and how to avoid potential problems. when used with other sources, this is very helpful and i wish more evaluators might read and use this text before conducting such evaluations. i hope that he provides an update soon that includes discussion of all changes in state laws and, if the federal child protection act is passed, the effects of that legislation on federally-required state civil commitment laws and their implementation. he could discuss in greater detail some of the legal and programmatic implementation concerns. a revision might also include helpful web sites, literature, state resources, perhaps even documentation. this 4 year old edition, while not perfect, is outstanding and, i believe, worth every penny spent, new.

5.0 out of 5 stars As a guide, good; as a training experience, top-notch, and screw the DSM, January 20, 2012

By 

Derek Grimmell (Clinton, IA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Evaluating Sex Offenders (Practical Aspects of Assessing & Treating) (Kindle Edition)

Yes, this book doesn't conform to DSM. That's because the law doesn't conform to DSM. Just to make sure this horse is dead, the Kansas commitment statute broadly defines any mental abnormality as a potential ground for commitment, if it creates a risk of sexual offending and reduces the person's ability to inhibit their impulses. The Supreme Court upheld the statute as Constitutionally permitted. Nothing says the mental abnormality has to be listed in the DSM, and the Supremes specifically stated that this was OK; States can go beyond psychiatric manuals if they choose, so long as the law passes strict scrutiny.

Whew! Now, back to reviewing the book. I've participated in many different forms of this evaluation, and taken training from Doren, yet learned still more from this book. What I would particularly recommend to any student of forensic psychology is that this manual is outstanding in showing the detailed, step-by-step reasoning which an examiner must use when working in the area of psychology and law. For each diagnosis he discusses, Doren presents very carefully worked-out issues, and sometimes dilemmas, which the examiner will confront. In one place he describes a great deal of supplemental material not included in the DSM, to support the idea that there is a diagnosable paraphilia for rapists. He even lists some of the reasons the committee members have given as to why they didn't put it in the manual, but just left it to "Paraphilia NOS." Similarly, there's a careful discussion of why substance abuse diagnoses are almost always not relevant to these evaluations, even where the patient clearly has a substance abuse disorder. This will be tremendously helpful the next time I'm on the witness stand.

Probably the greatest drawback is the book's age. It was written while Kansas v Crane was being deliberated, and is thus almost 10 years old. So his excellent review of research on psychological measures can't include the last 10 years of research.

Despite this, the book is a great book. Anyone who follows the detail-oriented approach that Doren uses here will be able to update their knowledge-base relatively quickly, in ways that I hope he will soon do in a second edition.