midterm
Midterm examination answers
CRIM5245-001
1. If I suspect that I client of mine is a psychopath, the first thing I will do is to validate reliability or my suspicions. I will ask another colleague to evaluate this client to get a second verdict of whether we are facing a true psychopath or no. This can be quite difficult to achieve, due to their facility to lye and malinger (to fake symptoms that they don’t really have). On our textbook named counseling Criminal Justice Offenders written by Masters, he mentions a Psychopathic checklist (PCL-R) used to rate individuals on a scale and that way get a more reliable diagnostic. After confirming the presence of psychopathy in my client, and rule out any other suspects, I face the harsh reality of the limited existence of treatment for this particular diagnosis. Psychopaths do not learn from experience, therefore punishment doesn’t help for preventing recidivism; on the contrary, after coming out of jail, they most likely will act Irresponsible and manifest an antisocial behavior without remorse. This client’s Personality disorder along with his socially deviant behavior makes the fact of getting treatment even risky; because sometimes the offender may use the therapy knowledge which usually trains clients on how to be more empathic, to better learn tactics to exploit and manipulate others. This was demonstrated by Ogloff, Wong, and Greenwood in 1990, when they reported a study in which a group of psychopath clients who voluntarily received psychotherapy were ultimately more likely to reoffend after release than a control group that did not receive any treatment. Psychopathy is not considered a serious mental disorder because they don’t experience hallucinations or delusions, in which they lose contact with reality. Instead, Psychopaths display a parasitic or exploitative behavior. This is not enough for us to say that this client needs clinical assistance.
CRIM5245-001
1. If I suspect that I client of mine is a psychopath, the first thing I will do is to validate reliability or my suspicions. I will ask another colleague to evaluate this client to get a second verdict of whether we are facing a true psychopath or no. This can be quite difficult to achieve, due to their facility to lye and malinger (to fake symptoms that they don’t really have). On our textbook named counseling Criminal Justice Offenders written by Masters, he mentions a Psychopathic checklist (PCL-R) used to rate individuals on a scale and that way get a more reliable diagnostic. After confirming the presence of psychopathy in my client, and rule out any other suspects, I face the harsh reality of the limited existence of treatment for this particular diagnosis. Psychopaths do not learn from experience, therefore punishment doesn’t help for preventing recidivism; on the contrary, after coming out of jail, they most likely will act Irresponsible and manifest an antisocial behavior without remorse. This client’s Personality disorder along with his socially deviant behavior makes the fact of getting treatment even risky; because sometimes the offender may use the therapy knowledge which usually trains clients on how to be more empathic, to better learn tactics to exploit and manipulate others. This was demonstrated by Ogloff, Wong, and Greenwood in 1990, when they reported a study in which a group of psychopath clients who voluntarily received psychotherapy were ultimately more likely to reoffend after release than a control group that did not receive any treatment. Psychopathy is not considered a serious mental disorder because they don’t experience hallucinations or delusions, in which they lose contact with reality. Instead, Psychopaths display a parasitic or exploitative behavior. This is not enough for us to say that this client needs clinical assistance.