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Committed as a Violent Sexual Predator in His 10th Decade: A Case Study

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Abstract

We report a case study of Atypical Offender (AO), a man who was civilly committed as a sexually violent person several years after his 90th birthday. In this article, we review the factors that usually contribute to virtually zero rates of sexual crime among nonagenarians for clues as to why these protective factors did not apply to this exceptional case. Psychological assessments and court records portrayed AO as having many of the features expected of persistent sexual offenders against children (e.g., pedophilic interests, child-oriented lifestyle). What was unusual, however, was AO’s exceptional good health and vigor, which was maintained well into his tenth decade. Consequently, we recommend that forensic evaluators of older sexual offenders systematically consider the offenders’ health as part of the overall risk assessment.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the records department at the committing facility as well as the office of the Clerk of Courts from the committing county for assistance in collecting clinical and court file information. You know who you are. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Public Safety Canada or Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center.

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  1. Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center, Mauston, WI, 53948, USA

    Ryan Mattek

  2. Public Safety Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    R. Karl Hanson

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Correspondence to Ryan Mattek.

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Mattek, R., Hanson, R.K. Committed as a Violent Sexual Predator in His 10th Decade: A Case Study. Arch Sex Behav 47, 543–550 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-017-1041-2

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