This information-rich volume expands current knowledge about sexually violent predators and critiques SVP laws with the goal of fostering improvements in clinical practice and public policy. It offers a finely detailed evidence base on this problematic class of offenders, including the complex interactions of biophysiological and environmental factors that contribute to criminal sexual behavior. Chapters discuss a wide range of assessment issues and instruments central to SVP evaluation, and the possibilities for developing interventions that address individual motivations and behaviors to reduce the risk of reoffending. And throughout, careful attention is paid to ongoing legal, ethical, and logical concerns regarding sexually violent offenders, their treatment and confinement, and their post-confinement placement. Among the topics covered: · Civil commitment of sex offenders. · The physiological basis of problematic sexual interests and behaviors. · Sexually violent predator evaluations: problems and proposals. · Cultural considerations in the assessment of sexually violent predators. · Management of sex offenders in community settings. · Effective use of an expert in sexually violent predator commitment hearings. Offering numerous issues for discussion and debate with considerable implications for clinical practice, policy, and the judicial system, Sexually Violent Predators will interest and enlighten forensic psychologists and psychiatrists as well as social workers, policy-makers, and legal professionals.

Convicted sex offenders released from custody at the end of their criminal sentences pose a risk for re-offense. In many US states, Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) laws have been enacted that allow for the post-prison preventive detention of high risk sex offenders. SVP laws require the courts to make dispositions that protect the public from harm while at the same time respecting the civil rights of the offender. This book describes these SVP laws, their constitutionality, and aspects of their operation. Courts hear expert risk testimony based heavily on the results of actuarial risk assessment. Problems associated with this testimony include the lack of a theory of recidivism risk, bias due to human decision-making, and the insularity of scholarship and practice along developmental lines. The authors propose changes in legal standards, as well as a unified developmental model that treats sexual violence as an "evolving" condition, with roots traceable to childhood and paths that extend into adolescence and adulthood.

This Handbook provides students and researchers with a broad overview of existing literature in many areas of legal decision-making, including examples of decisions made by different professionals. Inspiring future research and practice, it will interest those in psychology, sociology, criminal justice, and more.

The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric maps the ongoing becoming of queer rhetoric in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, offering a dynamic overview of the history of and scholarly research in this field. The handbook features rhetorical scholarship that explicitly uses and extends insights from work in queer and trans theories to understand and critique intersections of rhetoric, gender, class, and sexuality. More important, chapters also attend to the intersections of constructs of queerness with race, class, ability, and neurodiversity. In so doing, the book acknowledges the many debts contemporary queer theory has to work by scholars of color, feminists, and activists, inside and outside the academy. The first book of its kind, the handbook traces and documents the emergence of this subfield within rhetorical studies while also pointing the way toward new lines of inquiry, new trajectories in scholarship, and new modalities and methods of analysis, critique, intervention, and speculation. This handbook is an invaluable resource for scholars, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students studying rhetoric, communication, cultural studies, and queer studies.

This is the first book devoted to the use of social media and other internet-derived data in forming forensic clinical opinions of behavior. Designed for mental health practitioners, it outlines the challenges and the benefits of incorporating digital information in forensic assessments. It offers best practice guidelines geared to both criminal and civil psycho-legal questions. Each chapter includes a brief overview of the psycho-legal issues, clinical applications of consulting internet-based data, ethical and legal considerations and real life, de-identified case examples. This book provides guidance to the clinician in an emerging technological environment in which there are few resources, and ensures a more scientific and legally sound practice.

Having the knowledge and capacity to deliver therapy to a diverse population is recognized as benefiting client-therapist relationships and producing positive clinical outcomes. In fact, the APA requires that psychologists be aware of and respect the cultural characteristics of their clients which includes psychologists being aware of any biases and prejudice they may hold. Being aware of cultural characteristics, which include age, gender, ethnicity, race, religion and other cultural factors, is important. In the United States, minority ethnic groups are growing substantially, with 28% of the U.S. population identifying as races other than white (U.S. Census, 2016). Additionally, approximately 65 million people in America speak a foreign language that is not English, with over 25 million people having limited English language proficiency. With a diverse pool of clients, helping professionals should be better prepared to work with diverse clients. This handbook offers clinicians a comprehensive resource with which to work with diverse populations. The myriad discussions among the chapters include: Ethical guidelines for working with culturally diverse clients Cultural considerations in psychological assessment and evaluation Behavioral health service delivery with culturally diverse clients Cross-cultural factors in the treatment of trauma related disorders Cultural considerations in the assessment and behavioral treatment of substance use disorders Handbook of Cultural Factors in Behavioral Health expertly offers clinicians a comprehensive set of resources and tools that will assist them working with diverse clients. Clinicians working with culturally diverse clients, as well as researchers and students learning about how cultural factors are relevant to the helping profession will all find this volume an integral addition to their library.

This book provides a feminist psychological analysis of contemporary resistance to sexual harassment in and around #MeToo. It explores how women’s assumed empowerment in postfeminist and neoliberal feminist discourses has shaped understandings of sexual harassment and social responses to it. This exploration is grounded in the trajectories of feminist activism and psychological theory about sexual harassment. Lazard addresses the gendered binary of female victims and male perpetrators in contemporary victim politics and the treatment of perpetrators within postfeminist and neoliberal frames. In doing so, the author unpacks the cultural conditions which support or deny who gets to speak and be heard in #MeToo politics. This book will be a valuable resource not only for scholars and students from within the psychological sciences and gender studies, but for the wider social sciences and anyone interested in the psychological grounding of the #MeToo movement.