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This paper reflects the views of Catholic safeguarding coordinators (SCs) with regard to the inclusion of the polygraph in forensic psychological risk assessments that they have commissioned. The contents are derived from feedback forms sought of these instructing parties, relating to fifteen priests referred for assessment by SCs from eight different Catholic dioceses in England. The SCs responded to a post-assessment survey including a range of questions concerning their perceptions of the utility of independent, secularly organised, forensic psychological risk assessments undertaken during the period from January 2019 to December 2021. Feedback was obtained in relation to twelve of the clerics, with two SCs having left their positions during the period and as such, not avail able to provide feedback, and one SC not responding to the feedback request. Replies were received from SCs representing seven of the twenty-two Catholic dioceses in England. The overall survey results reflected that a significant majority of respondents positively connoted the value of independent secularly organised forensic psychological risk assessments. However, their expressed views about the polygraph in this context were more varied, thus prompting the authors to produce this separate paper.

"A psychological assessment is commonly used in a range of clinical, occupational and forensic settings. Increasingly, religious organisations have recognised the value of secular, independent assessments for both novices and experienced clerics, which can address areas relevant to emotional wellbeing, vocational aptitude, and possible social risk ( Jack & Wilcox, 2018). Notably, when addressing risk concerns, there is oft en a paucity of documentation in cleric assessments compared to that accessible in traditional forensic settings (e.g. probation, family courts, prisons). As such, it can be helpful to augment standard interview and psychometric practices with additional tools to try to achieve a more informed risk assessment, particularly when allegations of harm remain unresolved. In some such cases, the polygraph is utilised as part of that assessment process." (...)

"A polygraph instrument collects physiological data from at least three systems within the human body. They generally include respiration, sweat gland activity, and blood pressure measurement. A typical polygraph examination will include a period referred to as a pre-test interview, a chart collection phase and a test data analysis phase. It works on the assumption that almost all people have a fear response associated with lying, particularly about matters of signifi cant personal importance to them. However, in fairness, this assumption is not subject to universal agreement and there is no consensus as to the underlying basis upon which the polygraph examination can be employed to such consistently positive eff ect (Wilcox, 2013). As such, lying is thought to produce a natural stress reaction (Wilcox, 2000) activating the autonomic nervous system, a part of the central nervous system that is largely outside of conscious, volitional control."(...)

"This paper provides a case example of how the polygraph can assist in achieving enhanced levels of disclosure when assessing a priest in relation to reported concerns about sexual risk. In the present case, the polygraph is used in combination with other tools employed to produce a comprehensive forensic psychological evaluation of a cleric for safeguarding purposes ( Jack and Wilcox, 2018). Th e author considers that the case study is a helpful medium for describing the utility of the polygraph as an adjunctive tool in risk assessments (Wilcox and Buschman, 2011; Wilcox, Foss, and Donathy, 2005; Wilcox, O’Keefe, and Oliver, 2009)."(...)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of mental capacity legislation when applied to parents with learning difficulties who lack capacity within childcare and family law proceedings in England and Wales. Design/methodology/approach The paper relies on a range of material including reports published by independent mental health foundations, official inquiries and other public bodies. It also refers to academic and practitioner material in journals and government guidance. Findings The paper critically reviews the application of the guidance when assessing mental capacity legislation as applied in England and Wales and offers by way of illustration several case examples where psychological assessments, and the enhancement of capacity, have assisted parents who were involved in childcare and family law proceedings. Research limitations/implications There has been little published research or governmental reports on the number of cases when parents involved in childcare and family law proceedings have been found to lack capacity. No published prevalence data are available on the times when enhancing capacity has resulted in a change of outcome in childcare and family law proceedings. Practical implications The duty is on the mental health practitioners assessing mental capacity that they do so in a structured and supportive role adhering to good practice guidance and follow the guiding principles of mental capacity legislation assuming that the individual has capacity unless it is established that they lack capacity. Guidance and training is needed to ensure that the interpretation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and its application is applied consistently. Social implications For those who are considered to lack mental capacity to make specific decisions, particularly within childcare and family law proceedings, safeguards are in place to better support such individuals and enhance their capacity in order that they can participate more fully in proceedings. Originality/value While the MCA legislation has now been enacted for over ten years, there is very little analysis of the implications of capacity assessments on parents involved in childcare and family law proceedings. This paper presents an overview and, in places, a critical analysis of the new safeguarding duties of mental health practitioners when assessing for, and enhancing capacity in parents.

The psychological assessment of novice and experienced clerics is an important component of ordination, suitability, and risk evaluation to ensure that representatives of religious organizations are equipped, motivated, and safe for a life commitment to a faith vocation. It is the authors’ opinion that such assessments should be conducted by skilled psychologists with expertise that covers occupational, clinical, and forensic domains. Further, the authors emphasize the importance of an objective and secular assessment to better inform the church about its role and responsibility for the oversight and spiritual development of the cleric. A thorough psychological assessment should incorporate a multimodal approach to information gathering, which includes a comprehensive review of background information and medical records, a personal history interview, a mental status examination, and administration of relevant psychometric measures and assessment tools. We also advise that, upon completion of the assessment, the requesting religious organization should be offered the opportunity to meet with the evaluating psychologist to discuss suitability issues and, if necessary, risk management planning.

Attachment theory has had a profound influence on our understanding of human relationships. This paper focuses on the application of the Dynamic-Maturational Model of attachment to children involved in care and family proceedings. It describes the central principles of attachment as developed by Ainsworth et al. (); Bowlby (); Crittenden () and Main (). Attachment patterns are explored and the circumstances under which these various engagement strategies arise. The authors provide two case examples of different insecure attachment styles. They include brief background information, observations about clinical presentation and formulation sections, offering the reader an opportunity to integrate their thinking about how different insecure attachment styles necessitate alternative intervention approaches. The paper highlights the complexity of assessing attachment in different circumstances, and the authors propose that this article should be viewed as a 'primer' for helping practitioners to take better account of attachment issues whenever undertaking assessments within the context of child and family proceedings. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 'The paper highlights the complexity of assessing attachment in different circumstances' Key Practitioner Messages * Attachment theory applies to every stage of life. * If the baby's care is predictable but not attuned, she learns that thinking protects her and displaying negative emotions endangers her. * When the baby's carer is unpredictable and inconsistently attuned, she learns that exaggerating emotions gets results. * Mother was unaware that her inconsistency worsened Tammy's behaviour. * Anna experienced feelings of self-blame due to her mother feeling overwhelmed. * Assessing attachment can be very complex where a child experiences extended trauma. 'Assessing attachment can be very complex where a child experiences extended trauma' Language: en

This slim volume provides an up to date synthesis of what is known or conjectured about sexual homicide offenders. It compares and contrasts models and typologies developed and employed over the la...

The Internet Flow Model can be used as a stand-alone intervention or in combination with features noted in mainstream treatment packages, including an examination of the four stages of Finkelhor's and Wolf's cycle with a focus on pro-offending behaviours and cognitive distortions. Wilson describes the effect of Internet pornography on the brain's reward system, identifying the internal brain changes that have been reported in addiction to substances and behaviours. Importantly, our understanding of the mental processes associated with flow has improved over time and areas of key significance are the concept of 'neuroplasticity', and brain changes relating to the addiction process. In this world, flow and addiction come together in ways that are different from conventional, real world sexual offending. The Good Lives Model (GLM) identifies key issues associated with treating inappropriate sexual behaviour and highlights the importance of addressing wider ranging human needs when developing intervention plans.

This paper focuses on the introduction of the mental capacity legislation and in particular its application to care and family proceedings in the UK. It reviews challenges with regards to its implementation, noting serious shortfalls in its use even a decade after the mental capacity act was introduced. Guidance is provided within the paper with regard to maximizing capacity and involvement of individuals in care proceedings where these issues have been raised. Case examples are also used to clarify and to contextualize these matters.

From introduction: "Just two years ago, in April 2012 (Wilcox and Gray) published a paper in this journal on the then current application of polygraphy with sexual off enders in the UK. At the request of the Journal Editor, this paper represents an update of developments in this area."(...)

Clark Baim and Tony Morrison are both well-known and respected names in the field of sex offender work and have published widely within this discipline. This book has broad applicability both withi...

This article presents the first study on post-conviction polygraphy in the Netherlands. Importantly, it exclusively focuses on cybercrime offenders. The study is designed to systematically address the different child sexual behaviours exhibited by 25 participants who are in treatment for possessing child abuse images. The results indicate that post-conviction polygraphy can provide additional data to inform the development of theory in this area and contribute to the treatment, supervision, and more effective containment of offending behaviour and the reduction of future victimization.

This article is based on a paper presented by the first author at the Division of Forensic Psychology’s Annual Conference in Preston on 23 June 2009. It describes research conducted in the Netherlands and led by the second author, Jos Buschman, psychologist and polygraph examiner (Buschman, Bogaerts et al., 2009; Buschman, 2008).

A previous exploratory study of the Child Molester Empathy Measure (CMEM) focused on the difference between offenders' normal level of general empathy and the way in which a sample of Dutch offenders viewed their own victims. The authors found that, regardless of their level of general victim empathy, all offenders thought that their own victims were better off than the unknown victims of sexual offences. In order to study this ranking phenomenon more closely, the authors replicated the study procedure with Dutch and Australian offenders. The authors rated each offender's responses for three child victims on the CMEM on an n-dimensional column vector and compared these data with their answers to the same questions related to two adult victims. The results are presented in this paper.

This paper reviews assessment, treatment and supervision issues in relation to a high-risk, borderline functioning, male sex offender with zoosexual interests and behaviours. Mr Z was convicted of multiple sexual offences including rape, indecent assault and indecent exposure as well as actual and threatened bodily harm. He was convicted for two counts of attempted buggery of horses and he received a Probation Order to engage in group and individual work, as deemed appropriate. Significant treatment challenges emerged due to his cognitive/intellectual difficulties, coping problems (including anger management issues) and dissimulation. Further, continuing evidence of high-risk behaviours associated with his index offence as well as previously identified patterns of offending were reported. Ongoing concerns prompted a referral for a polygraph examination to gain additional information about Mr Z's offence history and to achieve a better understanding of his treatment needs. These findings are discu...

This Doctoral portfolio chronicles my professional development in many respects. I completed my Masters Degree in the late 1970’s with a dissertation focusing on behavioural self-control techniques for the control of obesity. This research examined the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural techniques at a time when ‘learning theory’ and ‘behaviour modification’ were still regarded as the only therapeutic tools necessary in many clinical settings. My professional work began with a series of clinical psychologist posts in treatment settings for the intellectually disabled. My emphasis on working with individuals who presented challenging, socially inappropriate behaviours led to a gradual forensic emphasis and eventually to ‘partnership’ with the West Midlands Probation Services, Sex Offender Unit in the early establishment of a groupwork programme for intellectually disabled sex offenders. This work has led to my involvement in national and international training events focusing on the development of effective treatment techniques for working with intellectually disabled offenders who commit sexual offences. This work has culminated with the production of my review article, ‘Treatment of Intellectually Disabled Individuals who have Committed Sexual Offences: A Review of the Literature’, a slightly longer version of which has now been accepted for publication by the Journal of Sexual Aggression (Wilcox, accepted for publication). The second review article, ‘The Application of the Clinical Polygraph Examination to the Assessment, Treatment and Monitoring of Sex Offenders’ (Wilcox, 2000), was published in the Journal of Sexual Aggression. This paper and the research dossier, which is currently being prepared for publication, is the direct result of the supportive and forward thinking attitudes of the Probation Service management at that time. The West Midlands Probation Services Sex Offender Unit’s Community Sex Offender Groupwork Programme was developed and achieved Home Office Accreditation during this period when Wilcox Psychological Associates was providing the psychological assessment and consultancy services to the Sex Offender Unit. In keeping with the Unit’s general attitude toward improving effectiveness, I was at that time pursuing the use of physiological measures to improve the treatment, assessment and monitoring of offenders. This led to making contact with various professionals and ultimately to research and evaluation of the effectiveness of the polygraph in this regard via the research dossier. Since that time I have made a number of conference presentations and published numerous articles with colleagues in this area (Wilcox, Sosnowski and Middleton, 1999; Wilcox, Sosnowski and Middleton, 2000; and Wilcox, Sosnowski, Middleton and Grubin, 2002). In many respects, the case study most substantially reflects the kind of professional work I have undertaken since achieving Chartered status as a clinical and forensic psychologist. This paper details a common focus of my clinical evaluation and risk assessment work employing specialised and more general psychometric measures. The case study includes information about clinical interviews conducted and professional liaison efforts to address obvious public protection concerns that have arisen. The initial assessment report describes the work I have undertaken within the context of providing expert witness testimony in legal proceedings. The treatment component of this paper provides, through a case example, evidence of my work with the National Probation Service in developing and running Sex Offender Assessment and Treatment Programmes.

The development of comprehensive treatment services for intellectually disabled sex offenders has been slow in comparison with mainstream sex offender treatment services, which have now achieved Home Office accreditation within the National Probation Service. The author discusses some of the reasons for this failure to keep pace, focusing on the relative absence of an expertise spanning the fields of sex offender work and intellectual disabilities. Attention is focused on the particular challenges of targeting treatment, measuring change and evaluating programmes delivered to these individuals. The author reports on steps that have been taken toward overcoming these obstacles and makes recommendations about further work to be done.

This paper describes one of the first systematic focused attempts to elicit the views of sexual offenders about the treatment that they have received. The paucity of previous research in this area is suggested to be the result of negative societal attitudes towards sexual offenders, as exemplified by recent tabloid newspaper coverage of this population. It is suggested that these attitudes may have a negative impact upon the attitudes of clinicians and researchers, and thus upon the treatment offered to this client group. Therefore, it is argued that seeking the views of the clients is essential in order to ensure that treatment is relevant and reflexive, and promotes relapse prevention. A questionnaire was distributed to participants who had completed treatment groups run by the Psychology Service at a Regional Secure Unit and at a Probation Service Sexual Offender Unit. The questionnaire aimed to elicit their views of the group experience, including issues to do with programme structure and content, group process, and therapeutic style of group facilitators. The results (including a pilot study) indicated that, on the whole, participants' experiences of the group were positive, for example aspects of the group process, understanding and preventing reoffending. Some suggestions for the modification and development of future sexual offender treatment are outlined, based on the feedback from subjects, for example, consideration of alternative treatment modalities, enhancing the content of group sessions, improving the organization of groups and modifying the training of groups leaders.