NCJ Number
192437
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 45 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 646-662
Date Published
December 2001
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article uses the perspective of therapeutic jurisprudence to examine many of the issues and problems associated with adjudicating and treating sex offenders; and it presents a "treatment track" or deferred sentencing model.
Abstract
"Therapeutic jurisprudence" is the study of the role of the law as a therapeutic agent. According to David Wexler and Bruce Winick, who first introduced the term in the early 1990's, therapeutic jurisprudence uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the social-psychological impact of the law; to enrich the scope of legal policy analysis; to improve the law's functioning; and to find creative methods of crafting legal arrangements that enhance its therapeutic effects without subordinating due process and other justice values. A therapeutic-jurisprudence perspective on sex offenders and the plea-bargaining process suggests a revision in existing practice that would change the laws' current reinforcement of denial and cognitive distortion and promote offender rehabilitation through cognitive restructuring. Wexler and Winick (1996) have suggested a dialog approach to offender sentencing based on a guilty plea in which the defendant is encourage to make a detailed admission of guilt. This would establish a factual basis for the plea, work against any present or future denial or cognitive distortion about the nature of the offense, and anchor the defendant to any previously accepted treatment and compliance decisions associated with the plea agreement. The model proposed by the authors of the current article involves consideration of the therapeutic potential and needs of each defendant at the earliest stages of the prosecutorial process. Persons deemed eligible (e.g., first offenders or repeat offenders who have not received treatment) would be offered a substantial sentence deferment, contingent on their early cooperation with authorities at the court level, a plea of guilty to a charge commensurate with the actual offense committed, and successful participation in sex offender treatment during and after the adjusted period of incarceration. Failure to abide by any portion of the deferred sentence would result in a revocation hearing by the sentencing court to require the offender to serve the original non-deferred sentence minus the time already served. 38 references