FORT SILL, Okla. (April 21, 2016) -- More than 250 people from across Oklahoma attended a two-day conference called "The Psychology of Criminal Sexuality" at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lawton, April 13-14.
The event featured Dr. Thomas Tiefenwerth, who has worked more than 40 years in the corrections-criminal justice field and has more than 30 years clinical-forensic mental health experience.
"This is not a conversation for polite company," said Tiefenwerth about the subject of the conference. "Many of the things we talk about and see are disturbing and potentially outright offensive to many people."
The event was coordinated by Leslie Watts, Fires Center of Excellence (FCoE) Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention manager, and designed to discuss the challenging topics of criminal sexuality to include fetishes, paraphilia and psychopathology.
"This topic is very relevant to today with recent books, movies and TV series that glamorize the criminal or potentially criminal side of sex," said Watts. "It's important to discuss the topics to remain current, share best practices and learn from others in the field."
Maj. Gen. John Rossi, FCoE and Fort Sill commanding general, welcomed the attendees which included individuals from both military and civilian workforces and spanned job occupations from law enforcement to therapists to lawyers.
"One of the things we absolutely realized was we needed to reach outside the gate and bring in some behavior health expertise," said Rossi. "We've got to find out what is going on. The problem is a lot bigger than I think it is."
Watts said organizing the event began while planning for the 2015 SHARP Summit on Fort Sill. She received Tiefenwerth's information as a possible guest speaker or training leader. Watts quickly realized 90 minutes at the summit would not be enough time for Tiefenwerth to provide the quality of information and insight so an additional training event was designed.
"Education is key," said Watts. "When we educate professionals, especially those working in direct relationship to both offenders and or victims, we are improving 'the system.' We have to remain proactive and part of being proactive is to be educated, to work collaboratively with like-minded organizations and to tackle the issue of sexual assault as a united front. We have to have balance in our education as well. One cannot become so immersed on one side of the system that they don't understand the mindset of an offender or how individuals become enmeshed in criminally sexual behavior. Creating culture change and preventing sexual assault comes from collaboration, working together and receiving a holistic view of the problem."
Rebecca Allison, a Garfield County sheriff's deputy, said she attended the training as part of an overall training requirement for her job as a deputy.
"I'm going to go into crimes against persons sometime in the future and criminal sexuality is part of what we deal with," said Allison. "I came to learn as much as I can. I'm not in that field just yet so anything I can learn will help."
Watts said increasing professional knowledge on various types of criminal sexuality was one of many goals she hoped attendees took away from the conference. Another goal is to gain an insight into the minds of offenders.
"(I hope people learn) how one gets involved in criminally sexual behavior and when the onset of criminal behavior begins," she said. "This is a community, state and national problem, that all professionals in the field are working on to support victims and hold offenders accountable. Through collaboration and co-training, we gain strength when we understand our community partners, their responsibilities and how we can work together toward cultural change."
Watts said she is looking forward to organizing another training similar to this next year.
She has already talked to another educator who she said is "eager for the opportunity and is very well known in the field of criminal justice and victimology."
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