General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 6'4" 250 lb. Man Rapes Three-year-old Daughter, Judge rules for HIS safety. No rape culture here! [View all]Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)In the past 25 years I've done psych evals of well over 2,000 offenders and a large number of victims in every sort of setting, from acute psych hospitals to outpatient mental health clinics to prisons & jails to secure treatment facilities for committed sex offenders. I have also done a lot of treatment of PTSD and related conditions (and even published a little in this area) so I don't typically think of myself as shielded from reality. A portion of my work involves making recidivism risk assessments and doing court testimony, and for that I have to be very current on the relevant scientific literature. I try not to make assertions based solely on my experience because I know better than to trust myself or anyone else to produce unbiased estimates when it comes to impressionistic notions based on cumulative experience. For example, years ago I developed some quite accurate systems for monitoring and analyzing ward behaviors, collected data in a number of institutions where I consulted, and compared these findings to what the nursing staff were telling us. The nurses often proved to be quite inaccurate in their perceptions of the behaviors of given individuals.