Animal Attraction: A Guide to Understanding Bestiality

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/13/2023
8:45 am - 11:00 am

Categories

• Training

Bestiality

Presented by Dr. Renée Sorrentino, Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, and John Allgire

Friday, October 13, 2023 from 8:45am – 11am.

This training will be held virtually via Zoom.

Although sex with animals is believed to be relatively uncommon, the study conducted on the sexual behaviors of 5,300 American men by Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin (1948) found that everyone in 13 men (8%) had engaged in bestiality. In response to increasing public awareness of bestiality, animal rights groups have lobbied to enact laws prohibiting sex with animals, citing it as cruel and inhumane.

In forensic arenas, bestiality arises in risk assessments, legal cases involving sexually violent predator (SVP) civil commitments, and aid in sentencing evaluations.  There are currently no validated risk assessment tools for bestiality.  Furthermore, actuarial tools such as the static-99-r may yield different results depending on the state laws. This workshop will review clinical and forensic aspects of bestiality, including the overlap with child maltreatment, outline the ethical arguments related to human-animal sex, and conclude with legal approaches to such cases from a law enforcement expert. The panel is comprised of forensic psychiatrists and a detective involved in the landmark case of Kenneth Pinyon.

Learner Objectives:

1. To describe the difference between bestiality and zoophilia.
2. To be familiar with how to evaluate individuals who present with a history of human animal sex.
3. To identify the relationship between human animal sex and childhood sexual abuse.
4. To be familiar with the role law enforcement plays in human animal sex.

Presenter Bios:

Dr. Renée Sorrentino, MD, DFAPA, is the medical director at the Institute for Sexual Wellness and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sorrentino is a Board Certified Forensic Psychiatrist with expertise in the evaluation and treatment of individuals with paraphilias. Dr. Sorrentino received her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed a residency in adult psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. Following her residency, Dr. Sorrentino completed a forensic psychiatry fellowship at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Sorrentino’s practice is devoted to the treatment and evaluation of paraphilias and sexual offenders as well as the hormonal treatment of paraphilias.

Dr. Susan Hatters Friedman, MD, DFAPA is both a forensic psychiatrist and a reproductive psychiatrist. Dr. Friedman currently serves as the inaugural Phillip J. Resnick Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University, where she also has appointments in the departments of Pediatrics, and Reproductive Biology (Obstetrics/ Gynecology), and at the School of Law. She serves as the Deputy Editor for the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Her academic work tends to focus the intersection of forensic psychiatry and reproductive psychiatry. Susan is the immediate past president of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, and has served as Chair of the Law and Psychiatry committee at the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP). She has received the AAPL award for the Best Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, the Red AAPL award for outstanding service to organized forensic psychiatry, the Manfred Guttmacher Award for editing the book Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate with GAP, and the Association of Women Psychiatrists’ Marian Butterfield early career psychiatrist award for her contributions to women’s mental health. Dr. Friedman previously worked as for seven years in New Zealand, where she also continues to serve as honorary faculty at the University of Auckland.

Detective John Allgire worked in the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office from 2001 to 2022.  Prior to being promoted to detectives he worked in uniform patrol and in Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). In the detectives division he worked in the Sex Kidnap Offender Registration (SKOR) program, and in the major crimes division. Detective Allgire was a polygraph examiner and has been trained in computer and mobile forensics.  He received his BA in Psychology from Western Washington University prior to working in law enforcement.   John is currently employed with the Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as their Investigative Supervisor.  In this role he assists in major investigations, trial preparations, and training for Law Enforcement.

REGISTRATION FEES:

Individual Member – FREE

Agency Member – FREE

(Agency Members include: Probation, Parole, Monmouth Co. Pros. Office, Ranch Hope, CJAP/Arc)

Non-member – $5

Registration closes Thursday 10/12/2023 at 5pm.  Zoom link to be emailed after close of registration.

Bookings