NCJ Number
151853
Date Published
1992
Length
10 pages
Annotation
To assess the case of a juvenile sexual offender, the Juvenile Court will often order a report from mental health professionals.
Abstract
However, the legal community, which applies the rules of discovery rigidly in order to designate responsibility, is often at odds with the mental health community, which is geared towards providing a supportive, nonthreatening environment that encourages open disclosure and avoids assigning ultimate responsibility. In cases involving young sexual offenders, the court is confronted with behavior that is difficult to understand, particularly when viewed out of context. The approach described here is psycho- social, in which the professional must look for information on the child's social history and psychological functioning as it relates to the offense. The examiner, using information from interviews and comprehensive psychological evaluations must craft a report that goes beyond those issues that are obvious from the nature of the offense and offer recommendations that the court can feasibly consider in deciding upon a disposition. These recommendations must balance community safety and victim issues, treatment needs of the offender, and the need for offender accountability. This report also describes the Ohio Victim Trauma Treatment Project, the initial phase of which will include the establishment of four regional victim treatment networks, the development of a 10-day victim treatment training sequence, and provision of other program support services including audiovisual materials, a newsletter, and clinical teleconferencing.