How can we determine if a defendant’s impulses cannot be resisted? Is it possible to predict whether a sex offender will re-offend? Based on what?

Assignment Question

In week 1, we took a look at how we might handle the responsibility of predicting dangerousness. Forensic psychologists, as we discussed, are often performing their duties not in the service of the client but the community. In recent weeks we’ve examined a number of cases related to extremism, mental illness, and crimes that occur on the outside of what we might call ordinary. This week, we’ve arrived at the Insanity Defense Reform Act (1984) which emphasizes that nonpsychotic behavioral disorders or neuroses (e.g. bipolar disorder) may not suffice to establish the insanity defense. The test states that the defendant’s mental illness must be “severe” to be exculpatory. So I believe it is an appropriate time to return to this discussion: What seems dangerous to you? What does not constitute as dangerous? What challenges do you see for NGRI and GBMI? How would you evaluate competency? When conducting a case study as a forensic psychologist, what do you include? (Refer back to Competency Evaluations or your assigned reading this week)

How can we determine if a defendant’s impulses cannot be resisted? Is it possible to predict whether a sex offender will re-offend? Based on what?

Last Completed Projects