Sex Offender Conviction and Sexual Disorder Assessments-Nursing Paper Examples

R. v. Mohan (1994) (Sex Offender Conviction-Nursing Paper Examples)

The R. v. Mohan case was a Supreme Court case argued on 5th March 1984 and decided on 20th June of the same year. It involved a determination to use expert witness testimony during the trial. The defendant, Chikmaglur Mohan, a practicing pediatrician, was charged with sexually assaulting four teenagers during their visit to the pediatrician’s clinic (Derwin, 2018). The defendant’s defense team sought the testimony of Dr. Hill to testify as an expert psychiatrist during the sexual assault trial (Sex Offender Conviction-Nursing Paper Examples).

The psychiatrists intended to disqualify the defendant’s profile as a pedophile, which the court dismissed due to inadmissibility. As a result, Derwin (2018) illustrates that the court established requirements determining the admissibility of expert testimony. They included the need to satisfy the logical relevance threshold and should only be used when necessary in assisting the trial. The testimony must also not be prohibited by exclusionary rules and should be provided by a qualified expert. Therefore, the criteria defining the use of expert witness evidence have been integral in litigation processes (Sex Offender Conviction-Nursing Paper Examples).

Psychometrics

The sex offender risk assessment tools used in sex offender treatment programs include the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) and Sexual Violence Risk-20 Version 2 (SVR-20 V2). The LSI-R is a structured tool for measuring the risk of sexual violence among female sexual offenders. Wolf et al. (2023) explain that LSI-R consists of 54 items for predicting parole outcomes, reoffending, and misconduct within correctional facilities. It collects information through semi-structured interviews and is appropriate for individuals aged over 16 years. The tool is suitable for sex offender risk assessment since it captures the offender’s criminal history and needs (Wolf et al., 2023) (Sex Offender Conviction-Nursing Paper Examples).

On the other hand, the SVR-20 V2 tool consists of 20 items categorized into three subsections: psychosocial adjustment, sexual offenses, and future plans (Hart & Boer, 2020). It is appropriate for assessing sex offender risk among individuals aged 18 and above. It is also suitable for determining the risk of sexual recidivism and identification of responsive factors for sexual offenses, such as mental problems (Hart & Boer, 2020). Thus, LSI-R and SVR-20 V2 offer ample opportunities for forensic psychologists to determine the risk of sexual offenses among inmates (Sex Offender Conviction-Nursing Paper Examples).

References

Derwin, A. (2018). The judicial admission of flawed expert opinion evidence informing wrongful convictions. Western Journal of Legal Studies, 8, 1. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1273&context=uwojls

Hart, S. D., & Boer, D. P. (2020). Structured professional judgment guidelines for sexual violence risk assessment: The Sexual Violence Risk-20 (SVR-20) Versions 1 and 2 and Risk for Sexual Violence Protocol (RSVP). In Handbook of violence risk assessment (pp. 322-358). Routledge. ISBN: 9781315518374

Wolf, V., Mayer, J., Steiner, I., Franke, I., Klein, V., Streb, J., & Dudeck, M. (2023). The Predictive Accuracy of the LSI-R in Female Forensic Inpatients—Assessing the Utility of Gender-Responsive Risk Factors. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(5), 4380. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054380