Week 8 Flashcards
Willie Horton
Murder & robbery
-> life in prison w/o parole
Weekend furlough
- > didn’t return
- > caught year later (committed awful crimes)
- -> sentenced to consecutive terms
Lead to politicians “tough on crime”
Risk assessment
Assessing dangerousness
- third party protection
- involuntary commitment
- denial of bail
- hospitalization following NGRI
- death penalty
Barefoot v. Estelle (1983)
Barefoot
- convicted for murder of police officer
- sentenced to death
- based on testimony from psychiatrists on ‘future dangerousness’ saying absolute chance
- > neither had actually EXAMINED HIM!
APA
~2/3 predictions were wrong
-prediction of violence deemed unreliable by field
Supreme Court
-went against science
Predicting dangerousness
Low base rates (many have same characteristic, but not all with that characteristic do X)
Hospitals/prisons vs. communities
Long-term risk vs. short-term risk (few years better)
General research procedures
Study a group
Develop list of risk factors to predict which ones (upon release) commit act of violence
Study patients post-release
Develop predictors of future dangerous, violent behavior
Risk assessments
Actuarial (completely structured) vs. clinical (based on intuition; completely unstructured) prediction [DICHOTOMY]
Structured vs. unstructured [CONTINUUM]
Structured risk assessment (VRAG)
Criteria and rule for assessment are SAME for all cases
Determine criteria and apply CONSISTENTLY to all cases
More structured, better at predicting Mathematical process (cut off score)
Unstructured risk assessment (clinical)
Treat each case INDIVIDUALLY
Based on theoretical background and clinical experience
How should psychologists assess risk? (Monahan, 2007)
VRAG- 75% accuracy
-completely structured w/ no clinical review
His view- COVR (structured with clinical review in final assessment)
HCR-20: Webster et al. (1997)
Historical (all stable factors)
Clinical (more dynamic)
Risk management
Use of strutted violence risk assessments
Dip. of Board more likely to use structured tools than general practitioners of clinical psych (tend to use for Freudian techniques e.g., Rorschach)
Jurors’ reactions to risk assessment evidence
Test. from clinical assess. (more understandable and directly relevant) greater impact than actuarial assessment (more abstract, harder to understand, and less directly relevant)
Mental illness and dangerousness
Long held belief that NO relationship
Monahan
- re-eval position
- -> violence among disordered (higher for schiz., major depression, mania/bi-polar, alcohol or drug abuse/dependence)
- -> disorder among violent (prison higher rate of mental health problems than those in jail or general pop)
Rodney Alcala
Accused of rape
-> charged for lesser crime
Later found guilty of many murders (suspected in additional cases)
Doc. psych disorder
History of violent sexual assault
Paroled twice after short sentences
Sex Offender Law
1994: Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offenders Registration Act
Philip Albert
Reg sex offender, FL
Dist. child porn (pic of ex)
Had just turned 18
Frank Rodriguez
Reg sex offender, TX
19 w/ 16 gf (probation and reg.)
Married her and has children