Punishing Sex Offenders

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condition. Roxanne Lieb, associate director of the Washington State Institute of Public Policy, claims, “there are probably sex offenders who are criminal and some who are mentally ill” (Glazer). For example, in a study of five hundred and one convicted sex offenders, these men were found to have elevated levels of testosterone, irrational thoughts, and delusions about reality (Aylwin 172). The problem is the media has painted sex offenders black and white when they are really a gray area. Lucy Beliner of the Harborview Sexual Assault Center asserts, “the public always hates the sex offenders they don’t know and believes they should all go to prison forever” (Glazer). These highly publicized cases tend to focus on violence by strangers, yet rape-murders make up less than three percent of all sex crimes (Glazer). According to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, in almost ninety percent of cases the victim knows the attacker and sixty percent involve boyfriends or family ...

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is simply procedure and not treatment at all. No two sex offenders, let alone people, respond exactly the same to a stimulus. With more discretion, psychiatrists can determine what treatment will be most effective on an individual basis. In the past, judges have had the final say in whether or not a convicted sex offender is mentally ill under the law. This responsibility has had disastrous repercussions and should have been left up to a psychiatrist.
In the case of convicted child rapist Earl Shriner, prison officials in Washington discovered he had discussed with other inmates, drawn pictures, and written in his diary about torturing children once he was free. Shortly ...

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