The Andrea Yates, 'not guilty by reason of insanity' retrial has got me to thinking. I know, I know...always a dangerous thing. Yet, sometimes I just can't help myself.

I can accept the new verdict, yet I fear it may lead to a very dangerous person having a chance to act out her dangerousness again. Once she is, uh, 'cured'. I mean, at some point, when she has been in treatment for quite a long time I'm sure, she will likely be deemed 'safe' to live outside of the confines of whatever institution she finds herself. When that day arrives--and it will--I hope safeguards are set up that not only 'encourage' responsible participation in an overall outpatient psychiatric regimen, but mandate such.

I wonder why the sex offenders I work with do not meet the same compassion that Ms. Yates got in her retrial. A good 90% of the guys I see were victimized by a sexual predator when they were younger. Somehow violated their boundaries such that trauma and hardwiring have cemented into what they are today. Victims, through this lens. And, as Ms. Yates was acting out her unsolicited mental illness, so too these sex offenders. Acting out their unsolicited victimization.

With the creation of a relapse prevention plan, most of these guys do not re-offend. Treatment and psychotherapy may help, but it is the pragmatic awareness of potential danger and how to avoid such that renders these fellows ready to re-engage in society. That is if one believes that they are re-engageable. Obviously, many people do not believe this.

Ms. Yates got what many sex offenders got her first time around in the courts. Big press and sensationalism, and a guilty verdict. With some time and collective calming down, a touch of compasion set in. And, the NGI verdict.

I wonder if sex offenders, most who are not the predatory serial perpetrators that they are sensationalized to be, will ever see such compassion.

deorre

STRESSALIVE IS COOL!!