Convicted of sex crimes as a man, felon no longer deemed threat because of gender change

[Metaphor]

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...-after-sex-reassignment-treatment/4479275002/

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office is no longer seeking the commitment of a former Midwest Christian Services student convicted of myriad sex crimes because the individual now identifies as a woman.
Court records show the state dismissed the application on Jan. 9. Attorney general spokesman Lynn Hicks wouldn’t comment on the reason for the dismissal other than to say “an offender’s hormone levels are an important part of substantiating an offender’s likelihood of recidivism.”

In November, the Storm Lake Times reported that Joseph Matthew Smith, a 23-year-old convicted of molesting a fellow MCS student in 2014, was “undergoing medical treatment that is needed prior to (Smith) potentially undergoing gender reassignment surgery.”

Smith has received treatment for gender reassignment over the past two years at Newton Correctional Facility. She first expressed a desire to “get started on transgender classification” in October 2017 and started using female pronouns.

Smith has expressed a preference to identify as Josie, according to court documents.

“We don’t believe we have evidence sufficient to prove Josie Smith has a significant chance of reoffending,” Hicks said late last week.

An Iowa Department of Corrections spokesman said Smith was transferred on Saturday to the Sioux City Residential Treatment Facility for transitional release. He did not say when Smith will be released.

Hicks cautioned the public not to overreact to Smith’s upcoming release. Smith will be subject to sex-offender registration requirements for the rest of her life, Hicks said, which includes regular meetings with a probation officer and a listing on an attorney general clearinghouse.

“Josie Smith will be subject to strict sex-offender reporting required of those who commit the crimes she did,” Hicks said. “She’ll be subject to supervision for the rest of her life.”

Why, I wonder? Clearly, Josie Smith is a different person than Joseph Smith. They're not even the same gender! She ought be set free immediately without a criminal record.

Hicks said the attorney general's office has never encountered a case exactly like Smith’s.

A preliminary report prepared by the state’s expert, Dr. Jeffrey Davis, says Smith molested as many as 15 victims, ranging from ages 1 to 13, before being sentenced to prison in December 2015.
The report found the likelihood of re-offending within five years of release exceeded 20% because victims were of both genders, and because Smith was under age 25 and never had a long-term relationship.

“Mr. Smith has not had an intimate relationship,” the report says. “His sexual encounters appear to have primarily involved molestation, including his own molestation by multiple perpetrators, or his victimization of others.”

The report says Smith was molested repeatedly as a child in Louisiana, starting at age 7.

The report recommended Smith be confined at the Cherokee Civil Commitment Unit for Sex Offenders (CCUSO) in Cherokee for an indefinite period. But it was premised upon Smith having the sex drive of a man.

I don't see why testosterone makes a difference. All differences between men and women are borne from the patriarchy.

Dr. Tracy Thomas, a forensic psychologist and former clinical director of CCUSO, said the statute that outlines civil commitment requires the state to “essentially prove an offender has a chance offending greater than 51% for the rest of his life.” That becomes harder to prove when an offender significantly lowers his testosterone levels, which has a significantly higher impact on sex drive than estrogen.

Thomas said there are no women confined at CCUSO.

“From an evaluator’s standpoint, our recommendation is based on whether someone is more than likely to re-offend,” Thomas said on Monday. “Between 5% and 15% of sex offenders re-offend, so it takes an extraordinarily high burden to prove someone has a 51% chance.”

The UK offered Alan Turing (convicted of homosexuality) a choice: prison or chemical castration.

It's taken more than 60 years, but I'm glad to see the United States has followed this sensible model.

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

Perhaps for greater clarity and as an alternative to the OP, the facility where Josie was kept is described as such:

The Civil Commitment Unit for Sexual Offenders (CCUSO) provides a secure, long-term, and highly-structured setting to treat sexually violent predators (SVP) who have served their prison terms, but who, in a separate civil trial, have been found likely to commit further violent sexual offenses.

The program was created by the 1998 Sexually Violent Predators Act of Iowa to provide secure, inpatient treatment for sexual offenders who are believed to be a high risk for sexually re-offending. Inpatient treatment is indefinite, with the length of commitment dependent upon the time required for each individual to complete the criteria for advancement through five (5) treatment phases.

So, she has served her prison time; however, due to high risk of recidivism, she was being kept indefinitely. When they looked at variables for recidivism it included factors such as not having had intimate relationships or long term relationships, and her sexual encounters primarily involving sexual molestation both as victim and victimizer.

The question they were seeking to answer was about her risk of recidivism. If it were low, there would be no reason to detain her after her prison sentence had already been served. She will have to exit the system through a transitional release program, and will be subject to sex-offender registration requirements.

According to a forensic psychologist and former former clinical director for CCUSO, continued commitment requires an assessed 51% risk of recidivism. Ordinary recidivism rates for sex-offenders are between 5-15%.

Testosterone can be a variable in sex drive. Chemical castration has been attempted on sex-offenders. My understanding is the success rates have been inconsistent, though I haven't looked up sources for that at the moment. It may have been due, in part, to individuals halting their medication. MtF medical transition does involve similar anti-androgen treatment in many cases (MPA, the drug used for chemical castration, may be used for transition, but not necessarily in the same dosage and other medications are used), but it's not an identical treatment to chemical castration. If Josie has undergone an orchiectomy or vaginoplasty, then testosterone production would be quite low. Not all transgender women experience a significant loss of sex-drive on anti-androgens, while others may experience a total loss and no longer be able to have or maintain erections.

That said, I'm not a forensic psychologist, neither am I part of Josie's treatment team. I honestly don't know how good their assessment is. Naturally, given the nature of Josie's crimes, it's rather difficult to want to roll the dice with release, though admittedly, that's predominately an emotion-based reaction.

sources:
https://dhs.iowa.gov/mhds/mental/in-patient/ccuso

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...-after-sex-reassignment-treatment/4479275002/

 

[repoman]

I wonder if most trans up until now have been people with deep brain regions that are wired for the opposite sex in some ways.

But the ones who do not they must have some serious widespread problems.

If I were a pinpoint brain region genderswap trans, these crazy trans would concern me because to the dull masses they discredit me.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Quoted by OP by apparently unread by OP'er.

Hicks cautioned the public not to overreact to Smith’s upcoming release. Smith will be subject to sex-offender registration requirements for the rest of her life, Hicks said, which includes regular meetings with a probation officer and a listing on an attorney general clearinghouse.

That'd make the OP title alarmist and incorrect.

And goodness this person had it rough.

“Mr. Smith has not had an intimate relationship,” the report says. “His sexual encounters appear to have primarily involved molestation, including his own molestation by multiple perpetrators, or his victimization of others.”

The report says Smith was molested repeatedly as a child in Louisiana, starting at age 7.

I think it is important we shouldn't allow legal experts or doctors to provide an analysis of this person. We need far removed Aussie know-it-alls to determine what should be done to people like Smith, a person that has committed terrible acts, after having been the victim of such acts themselves.

I hope this works. This person was broken by terrible people as a child, and I hope they can find peace, being able to endure what has happened to them, what they have done to others, and try to cope with life. But, I'm not an Aussie Know-It-All who uses a misogynistic news aggregater to follow obscure stories.

 

[Jarhyn]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

 

[ruby sparks]

All differences between men and women are borne from the patriarchy.

Who says that?

 

[ronburgundy]

All differences between men and women are borne from the patriarchy.

Who says that?

The straw boogeymen that live in Metaphor's head and control every inane post he writes.

 

[Half-Life]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

But then you have the ones that don't want to transition and they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but say they are a woman. No hormone changes, sex reassignment surgery, nothing. They just claim, "My pronoun is she."

While these people would be bucking gender norms rather than conforming to them, it would make it a circus if this particular type of trans demanded to be put in a women's prison and fight in women's sports leagues.

 

[ZiprHead]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

But then you have the ones that don't want to transition and they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but say they are a woman. No hormone changes, sex reassignment surgery, nothing. They just claim, "My pronoun is she."

While these people would be bucking gender norms rather than conforming to them, it would make it a circus if this particular type of trans demanded to be put in a women's prison and fight in women's sports leagues.

Thank goodness we know who Halfie considerers to be a real man's man. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes up in his fantasies quite often.

 

[Half-Life]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

But then you have the ones that don't want to transition and they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but say they are a woman. No hormone changes, sex reassignment surgery, nothing. They just claim, "My pronoun is she."

While these people would be bucking gender norms rather than conforming to them, it would make it a circus if this particular type of trans demanded to be put in a women's prison and fight in women's sports leagues.

Thank goodness we know who Halfie considerers to be a real man's man. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes up in his fantasies quite often.

He is used because he's the stereotypical version of what "a man" is supposed to be. Having him use the pronoun "she" and being allowed into women's sports and women's prisons is crazy.

But on the flipside saying, "you must make an effort to pass as a man or woman!" is also reinforcing gender norms.

 

[Metaphor]

That'd make the OP title alarmist and incorrect.

The title was the title of the article, word for word. It is also an accurate summary of the situation.

I think it is important we shouldn't allow legal experts or doctors to provide an analysis of this person. We need far removed Aussie know-it-alls to determine what should be done to people like Smith, a person that has committed terrible acts, after having been the victim of such acts themselves.

I hope this works. This person was broken by terrible people as a child, and I hope they can find peace, being able to endure what has happened to them, what they have done to others, and try to cope with life. But, I'm not an Aussie Know-It-All who uses a misogynistic news aggregater to follow obscure stories.

If my national origin is such a concern to you, perhaps we can add little flags or a red box around avatars to indicate undesirables. Then you can tell at a glance.

 

[ZiprHead]

Thank goodness we know who Halfie considerers to be a real man's man. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes up in his fantasies quite often.

He is used because he's the stereotypical version of what "a man" is supposed to be. Having him use the pronoun "she" and being allowed into women's sports and women's prisons is crazy.

But on the flipside saying, "you must make an effort to pass as a man or woman!" is also reinforcing gender norms.

Stereotypical? Actually he's quite unusual.

 

[Half-Life]

Thank goodness we know who Halfie considerers to be a real man's man. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes up in his fantasies quite often.

He is used because he's the stereotypical version of what "a man" is supposed to be. Having him use the pronoun "she" and being allowed into women's sports and women's prisons is crazy.

But on the flipside saying, "you must make an effort to pass as a man or woman!" is also reinforcing gender norms.

Stereotypical? Actually he's quite unusual.

Arnold Schwarzenegger / Sylvester Stallone

Clint Eastwood would be up there too, I suppose. Not quite as muscular but a "take no nonsense" type of guy.

Compare that to Dems such as Obama, Schifty Schiff, no-nads Nadler, etc. All sissies.

 

[Metaphor]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

First, you're wrong. The first trans person I knew was one of my undergrad psychology lecturers (long enough ago that they were referred to as transsexual (M t F)), and decades before the concept of preferred pronouns and misgendering as a hate crime entered the public consciousness.

But, even if your charge were true--it isn't--it's irrelevant. It is a shutdown tactic of the woke to claim epistemic exclusivity--and I ain't having a bar of it, luvvie.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

I suppose then you'd be equally at home with a trans man having his recidivism risk 'upgraded' when he begins medical transition?

As in, the exact situation here, but with crimes committed as a woman, sentence served, but is held indefinitely as long as he keeps taking testosterone?

And, alternatively, if he chooses to de-transition, you're okay with the State re-evaluating him and letting him go on that basis?

I hope you're aware enough to consider what you're endorsing.

 

[Metaphor]

All differences between men and women are borne from the patriarchy.

Who says that?

I envy your ignorance.

Who says it? The Judith Butler acolyte at work who said boys were stronger than girls only because boys were given more protein as children, compared with girls. The feminists at google, who can't even accept that there are catalogued, decades-persisting differences in big 5 personality traits at a population level between men and women, let alone that these differences might lead to differential labour market outcomes. Mainstream feminists published everywhere who simultaneously appear to believe that testosterone concentration is linked to violence, but also that boys only become violent because of the patriarchy.

 

[laughing dog]

The title was the title of the article, word for word.

So?

It is also an accurate summary of the situation.

There is more to the determination that this person is not a threat than the gender change, so it is incomplete which makes it inaccurate.

Naturally, headlines are supposed to eye-catching, so it is par for the course to have incomplete or misleading headlines. However, OP discussions need not be incomplete, and disregarding/dismssing the person's history or the determinations of psychologists is more problematic.

 

[Jarhyn]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

But then you have the ones that don't want to transition and they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger but say they are a woman. No hormone changes, sex reassignment surgery, nothing. They just claim, "My pronoun is she."

While these people would be bucking gender norms rather than conforming to them, it would make it a circus if this particular type of trans demanded to be put in a women's prison and fight in women's sports leagues.

And it's a good thing, then, that prettyuch everyone around (except you, it seems) knows that the real dividing line of treatment in systems is hormone and endocrine balance, not on what someone prefers to be called.

 

[Metaphor]

The title was the title of the article, word for word.

So?

It is also an accurate summary of the situation.

There is more to the determination that this person is not a threat than the gender change, so it is incomplete which makes it inaccurate.

Naturally, headlines are supposed to eye-catching, so it is par for the course to have incomplete or misleading headlines. However, OP discussions need not be incomplete, and disregarding/dismssing the person's history or the determinations of psychologists is more problematic.

The gender change changed the determination.

That's the point. There was a recidivism determination 'before', and a recidivism determination 'after'. The change in the rating was solely due to gender transition.

 

[Jarhyn]

ITT: OP has apparently never known a transgendered person.

First, you're wrong. The first trans person I knew was one of my undergrad psychology lecturers (long enough ago that they were referred to as transsexual (M t F)), and decades before the concept of preferred pronouns and misgendering as a hate crime entered the public consciousness.

But, even if your charge were true--it isn't--it's irrelevant. It is a shutdown tactic of the woke to claim epistemic exclusivity--and I ain't having a bar of it, luvvie.

I've met a few, and known them through their transitions. Transitioning does change who you are, often in fundamental ways. Sometimes it actually completely alters their sexuality. Sometimes it makes them "crazy" for a while. Sometimes it makes them more sane.

The effects of transition are about as altering as the effects of puberty. Because it's puberty all over again.

It absolutely could have the effects described in the OP, changing their outlook on life, their aggression or urge to dominate people, their ability to empathize with others: all these are modified by puberty.

I suppose then you'd be equally at home with a trans man having his recidivism risk 'upgraded' when he begins medical transition?

As in, the exact situation here, but with crimes committed as a woman, sentence served, but is held indefinitely as long as he keeps taking testosterone?

And, alternatively, if he chooses to de-transition, you're okay with the State re-evaluating him and letting him go on that basis?

I hope you're aware enough to consider what you're endorsing.

It entirely depends on the evaluation made by those around them in their current context. There's a reason these people made this decision (observation of behavioral differences), and it's comical to see you, some guy sitting at home utterly shitting their pants over professionals doing their fucking jobs, think that they know more than said professionals about the context.

 

[Metaphor]

First, you're wrong. The first trans person I knew was one of my undergrad psychology lecturers (long enough ago that they were referred to as transsexual (M t F)), and decades before the concept of preferred pronouns and misgendering as a hate crime entered the public consciousness.

But, even if your charge were true--it isn't--it's irrelevant. It is a shutdown tactic of the woke to claim epistemic exclusivity--and I ain't having a bar of it, luvvie.



I suppose then you'd be equally at home with a trans man having his recidivism risk 'upgraded' when he begins medical transition?

As in, the exact situation here, but with crimes committed as a woman, sentence served, but is held indefinitely as long as he keeps taking testosterone?

And, alternatively, if he chooses to de-transition, you're okay with the State re-evaluating him and letting him go on that basis?

I hope you're aware enough to consider what you're endorsing.

It entirely depends on the evaluation made by those around them in their current context. There's a reason these people made this decision (observation of behavioral differences), and it's comical to see you, some guy sitting at home utterly shitting their pants over professionals doing their fucking jobs, think that they know more than said professionals about the context.

Oy gevalt. I never made any claim that I knew more than the 'professionals' doing their 'fucking jobs'. What I can tell you is that predicting re-offending is notoriously slippery and it would be interesting to see statistics on the accuracy of their judgments.

But that aside, since you avoided answering, I'll put it to you more directly. If a woman committed sex crimes and was sentenced as a woman, and she began transitioning to be a man (by taking testosterone), and this changed her rating from "less likely to reoffend and let them go" to "more likely to reoffend and keep them in custody indefinitely", would you support that determination?