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Homophobic Outrage in Virginia

Last month, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) succeeded in his aim of incarcerating a gay man indefinitely for sending text messages. AG Herring maintains the man – who has never been accused or arrested for any act of violence – is a “Sexually Violent Predator.” Virgina’s treatment of Galen Baughman, now 36,has attracted protests from LGBT and criminal-justice groups, and at least one Virginia lawmaker. His case highlights the dangers of Orwellian civil-commitment laws that allow indefinite confinement of people to prevent possible future offenses.

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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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