Mike - Mitigation Aide https://mitigationaide.com Evidence Based Psychological Profiles of Criminality Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:03:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Volitional Impairment in Sexually Violent Predator Cases https://mitigationaide.com/volitional-impairment-in-sexually-violent-predator-cases/ https://mitigationaide.com/volitional-impairment-in-sexually-violent-predator-cases/#respond Tue, 13 Jan 2026 22:03:18 +0000 https://mitigationaide.com/?p=1811 Survey of SVP evaluators finds wide disagreement on volitional impairment. Calls for structured, evidence-based methods and clearer reporting.

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Table of Contents
Overview
Summary
Implications for Mitigation
Reference

Overview

This article reviews three competing legal/clinical theories for “volitional impairment” in SVP cases and summarizes a survey of experienced forensic evaluators. Findings show major inconsistency and low interrater reliability in how volitional control is defined and assessed, supporting calls for more structured, evidence-based methods and clearer documentation in reports.

Summary

The factor of volitional control is present in all SVP assessments. Despite being addressed in Kansas v Hendricks (1997) and Kansas v Crane (2002), there continues to be no consistent means of defining or assessing volitional control.  

The authors of this study bring three main theories of volitional control to the fore.

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