An estimated 18.6% of adult Americans struggle with mental health symptoms, 22% of whom experience significant functional impairment qualifying them for status as having a serious mental illness (SMI). Despite high prevalence rates, many with mental health symptoms do not receive treatment. Barriers to treatment include those at both individual (i.e. lack of insurance) and environmental (i.e. lack of access) levels. Mental health symptoms causing an individual to be at risk for harm to self or others may lead to legal involvement via involuntary civil commitment (ICC) and evaluation. Although ICC statutes have been adopted throughout the United States, relatively little is known about ICC-involved populations and ICC caseflow. This study extends the literature by providing a description of the ICC population in southern Arizona. Findings identify risk and protective case variables in predicting ICC caseflow. Furthermore, this study is the first to examine two potential sources of problems within the ICC process: 1) disproportionate ICC-contact compared to population-based expectancies and 2) rate of agreement between ICC evaluating physicians regarding an individual’s mental health diagnoses.

Understanding desistance processes can have important implications for offender rehabilitation by informing treatment practitioners of offender strengths for reintegration. Despite this potential utility for program development, desistance remains difficult to measure consistently across studies. The present study attempts to establish the utility of the Measure of Criminal and Antisocial Desistance (MCAD) by comparing and contrasting desistance scores between a group of probationers and a group of civilly committed sex offenders. The results suggest that the MCAD is a valid and reliable measure that is able to observe differences in multidimensional desistance constructs between groups. Furthermore, suppression effects of desistance strategies on offenders under civil commitment were observed. Future research should explore the use of the MCAD and measures like it in creating more effective treatment programs for offenders.

abstract: This thesis examines the demographic, clinical, and criminal characteristics and discharge dispositions of pre-trial defendants deemed incompetent to stand trial and non-restorable (IST/NR) in Pinal County Arizona. Currently, there is limited research on defendants who are deemed IST/NR and even less so on discharge dispositions. The study utilized comparative descriptive analysis of secondary data collected by the Pinal County Attorney Offices on IST/NR defendants and restored defendants. It employed chi-square analyses to compare key variables between defendant groups. The study found few variations in clinical, legal, and criminal characteristics observed by previous studies and no statistical differences amongst IST/NR and restored defendants. However, it found the re-offense rate of IST/NR defendants in Pinal County was considerably lower than the general prison population. Moreover, it identified a narrow use of civil commitment procedures and guardianship amongst the IST/NR defendants who have a mental illness. Implications for further research and policy for Pinal County and Arizona are made. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Work 2017

This thesis investigated a rupture in the U. S. legal tradition of punishing sexual crime, initiatedby The Community Protection Act of 1990 and the Sexually Violent Predator Statute, that defined the criminal subject as a sexually violent predator. Thus, with this definition was initiated a new legislative innovation. Effectuated as the following Sexually Violent Predator laws, it allowed for the civil commitment of sex offenders post completed sentence. A commitment scheme that has been subject to a vast criticism qua its severe deprivation of basic human rights and dismissal of Constitutional provisions. The investigation was composed as a content analysis of the framing of the journalistic production responding to these laws. A selection of 35 news articles was appropriated as source material. The method of content analysis was accompanied by a theoretical framework, scrutinising normative orders and claims of disability and able-ism. The analysis of the source material resulted in the identification of eight repetitive thematics. Their framing was presented and analysed in order to critically discuss the composition and execution of the Sexually Violent Predator laws.

Recidivism within the sexually violent predator (SVP) population has gained worldwide attention because of the lack of protection offered to the victims that may lead to loss of life. Behavioral theory suggests that accuracy of predictive behaviors based on empirical judgement is more reliable than that based on clinical judgement. The purpose of this research was to see whether three actuarial assessment tools, Static-99, PCL-R, and MnSOST-R, could predict recidivism and whether the combination of the three-increased predictive value in the Texas SVP population. As yet, the literature provides no evidence. The Texas Open Record System provided assessment scores and violations of 90 SVPs committed during fiscal years 2009-2013. Texas had 58.9% violated commitment laws within the SVP population of the civil commitment program. The scores on these three assessment tools were analyzed along with the violations using bivariate logistic regression. According to the results, Static-99, PCL-R, and MnSOST-R can, in combination, predict recidivism better than any tool by itself in the Texas SVP. However, individually, only the PCL-R approached significance as a predictor. This study could lead to positive social change in both the targeted treatment of labeled SVP and in the accuracy of predicting recidivism among SVPs. Therapists should use the three actuarial assessment tools when developing treatment plans, intervention techniques, and when adjusting supervision requirements to assist in both targeted treatment and to reduce the number of victims.