What’s Wrong With “Making A Murderer”?

Making A Murderer is generating huge buzz on social media; dual petitions calling for Steven Avery’s exoneration have garnered more than 600,000 signatures to date. But after slogging through the 10-hour Netflix “documentary,” I was left feeling disturbed by the drama’s narrative and premises. Here’s why: 1. The narrative is grossly misleading. The hook to this story is protagonist Steven Avery’s prior exoneration: He served 18 years in prison for a rape of which he was ultimately exonerated by DNA evidence; just three years after his release, he was arrested for the unrelated murder and mutilation of another young woman…

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“Help! I am being held hostage in a reality show!”

The Suspicion System: How the social world shapes delusions Not so long ago, any decent-sized psychiatric hospital had at least two or three Jesus Christs in residence, and plenty of other patients serving as conduits for the CIA or the KGB. Nowadays, Jesus Christ is harder to find. You are far more likely to encounter reality TV stars: patients whose every move is choreographed by hidden directors, videotaped by hidden camera crews, and broadcast without consent to an audience of millions. “We see many, many young people who have had the sensation of being filmed,” a psychiatrist at a public…

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Sex addiction: Science or pop fad?

Thirty-one years ago, when Patrick Carnes walked onto the Phil Donahue television show to promote his new book on sexual compulsivity as an addiction, his notion was – in his own words – “widely perceived as a joke.”  But Carnes got the last laugh. With the mainstreaming of the addiction industry (eating, gambling, exercising and working are all potential addictions now), Carnes has risen to become guru of a lucrative empire with dozens of rehab centers staffed by thousands of paraprofessionals. Media outlets including Newsweek have uncritically jumped aboard, warning of a grim, pornography-fueled plague afflicting up to 5 percent…

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The mysterious nature of the “juvenile sex offender”

New research casts doubt on practical meaningfulness of emergent category If you ask John Q. Public about the public safety risk posed by a juvenile who has been arrested for a sex offense, chances are he will estimate too high. The public is woefully uninformed when it comes to risk of sexual reoffense in general, and nowhere is the gap between reality and media-driven anxiety wider than in the case of juvenile sex offenders. Michael Caldwell, a prominent expert on juvenile delinquency at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, has decided to take the bull by the horns and nail…

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As courts censure civil detention practices, is it time for professionals to speak up?

Guest commentary by David S. Prescott, LICSW* David S. Prescott. Photo by J. Lloyd. Last week, a federal judge ruled that Missouri’s civil commitment program is unconstitutional, the second such court decision in three months. For readers unfamiliar with the US civil commitment laws (AKA “SVP” laws), the short version is that 20 states and the federal government have laws that allow states to indefinitely confine sex offenders who are assessed as having a mental diagnosis that predisposes them to commit future sexual violence. There are controversies at every possible turn in these laws, their processes, and subsequent programs, and…

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Adversarial allegiance: Frontier of forensic psychology research

Low risk in a blue box, high risk in a red box, each dialogue box pointing to different sides of a single face split down the middle in a stylistic manner

Adversarial Allegiance: The Frontier of Research in Forensic Psychology Intro Expert testimony in so-called “sex offender civil commitment” often suffers from obvious adversarial allegiance — these cases take place on the frontiers of forensic psychology, often in a no man’s land devoid of reliable data or diagnostic practices.  Read this take from forensic psychologist Karen Franklin on the problem of biased testimony in so-called “sexually violent predator” trials. Open-minded? Think again. A colleague recently commented on how favorably impressed he was about the open-mindedness of two other forensic examiners, who had had the courage to change their opinions in the face…

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Recommended summer reading

Among a bumper crop of engaging new books, here are a few that stand out as especially relevant to forensic psychologists interested in popular culture:  Murder as public spectacle If you want to understand the nature of murder and its resolution in U.S. inner cities, look no further than L.A. Times reporter Jill Leovy’s Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America. Leovy embedded herself with detectives in one South Los Angeles precinct to discover the gloomy truth: When the government does not provide strong, centralized justice, people will take the law into their own hands … with tragic results….

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Science reporter delves into shadowy realm of civil commitment

Wayne Hicks and Hersey Lelaind. Illustration by Jenny Chang. “Hersey Lelaind knew he was in trouble — just not how much trouble. He and a housemate had been on a drive, and Lelaind had been smoking pot. When they returned to their home in Vacaville, California, the sheriff’s department was waiting….  “That was in 2006, when Lelaind was 26 years old. He’s been kept under lock and key ever since. His problem wasn’t the drug bust itself. But the bust prompted the authorities to review Lelaind’s checkered past. As a teenager, he had been convicted for sexual abuse against a…

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Static-99: A bumpy developmental path

By Brian Abbott, PhD and Karen Franklin, PhD*  The Static-99 is the most widely used instrument for assessing sex offenders’ future risk to the public. Indeed, some state governments and other agencies even mandate its use. But bureaucratic faith may be misplaced. Conventional psychological tests go through a standard process of development, beginning with the generation and refinement of items and proceeding through set stages that include pilot testing and replication, leading finally to peer review and formal publication. The trajectory of the Static-99 has been more haphazard: Since its debut 15 years ago, the tool has been in a…

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Upcoming forensic psychology trainings in Australia

I will be traveling to Australia next month to give a series of trainings, seminars and keynote addresses at Bond University on the Gold Coast (where I am a visiting research scholar), in Brisbane, and at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Here are descriptions and dates, in case you are nearby and interested in attending. For further information, click on any of the links below. I look forward to seeing some of you there. * * * * * SOCIAL MEDIA FOR FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS This half-day training workshop will be offered twice: College of Forensic Psychologists, Australian…

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