Karen Franklin has responded to my last blog in:
http://forensicpsychologist.blogspot.com/2010/12/blogger-challenges-my-post-on-sex.html
In her commentary, Dr. Franklin states that her interest "dissolved into disappointment when (she) realized that (my) response sidestepped substantive discussion of the new research (Wollert et al.'s new study on age-related desistance from continued engagement in sexual reoffending)".
Regarding my "side-stepping", I'm not sure that there was any "straight-stepping" (if that is the correct opposite) required. Dr. Wollert and crew quite admirably demonstrated that offenders, like the rest of us, slow down as they get older. The research is certainly important but not necessarily earth-shattering.
Dr. Franklin says, "The single most robust finding of two centuries of criminological research is that desistance from crime is near universal." She seems to agree with me, as I did with her.
Actually, I never set out to discuss the "new research" at all, as it is consistent with stuff that most of us in the field already accept to be true. Rather, the point of my blog was to question Dr. Franklin's approach in discussing it.
To close, I agree with Dr. Franklin in stating that, as bloggers, it is not our job to convince readers that we are the holders of divine truth. As she states, so I concur: Our job is to "encourage (objective--RJW) critical reflection and stimulate people to read the original source material," which I sincerely hope you will all endeavor to do.
RJW
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