Michael Seto

Scientist, forensic psychologist, angler = Skeptical optimist. Research director @TheRoyalMHC & Professor @uOPsychiatry.

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

Thrilled to receive very positive reviews on my draft for the 2nd ed Internet Sexual Offending, and to start working on revisions.

(Did you know that American Psychological Association books undergo peer review?)

Current timeline is for release in late 2024 to early 2025.

[Daily Stoic @dailystoic]

It’s inevitable that you will do wrong. What matters, at least to the Stoics, is not the mistakes (these simple errors that are a fact of life) but what we do about them.

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

@MaaikeHelmus, Angela Eke, and I have written a review of risk assessment tools for men convicted of child sexual exploitation material offenses.

Preprint available at this link:
https://t.co/mM0tuOQyMA

[Kat Tenbarge is on Bluesky @kattenbarge]

The nonconsensual sexually-explicit deepfake crisis has hit high schools around the world. Now it has even reached middle schools, where victims are around the age of 12. The perpetrators are their equally young classmates armed with deepfake tech.
https://t.co/budEctO8hn

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

I swear, I think 1/3 of my productivity is the work habits I've built over years, 1/3 is working with awesome collaborators, and 1/3 is avoiding meetings like I'm allergic to them

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

I'm sometimes asked how I am so productive while working regular office hours.

It helps to be organized, but first and foremost: Meetings should be a last resort, not a first option. Most meetings could be memos. Meetings should be reserved for discussions or decisions.

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

A timely story from @CBCNews on the revolving door between the health and criminal justice systems

https://t.co/DrScZgpNOm

[Kristin Song @kristinsong3]

My name is Kristin Song.

On January 31, 2018, my son Ethan was shot in the head in his best friend's house. The father/gun owner stored 3 handguns and ammunition in a shoebox. Ethan's friend had been accessing the guns for over 6 months.

At the hospital, the ER doctor slid down the wall, put his head in his hands, and whispered, "Your son is gone." At that instant, all I knew, loved and trusted was imploded into a million tiny pieces.

I begged to say goodbye to my beautiful boy. I wanted to kiss his forehead, tell him how cherished he was, and tuck him in one last time. But the doctor begged me to remember Ethan as he was, you see, he was unrecognizable even to my eyes.

The day before Thanksgiving in 2018, the prosecutor told me she would not charge the negligent gun owner, and if I wanted negligent gun owners to be held accountable, I would have to change the law.

So I did.

6 months later, Connecticut passed Ethan's Law, which requires gun owners to secure their weapons if children can gain access.

Then, I learned that so many states stood silent on this issue, so in 2019, I turned my attention to passing Ethan's Law nationally. I met with over 400 congressional offices, 130 of them Republican.

In 2022, Ethan's Law was passed in the House of Representatives as part of the Safer Communities Act. Sadly, it was not picked up in the final package.

When the Democrats lost the House of Representatives in 2023, I pivoted to passing safe gun storage laws in the States. As a result, Michigan, New Mexico, and Maryland passed safe storage laws.

Currently, I am working with 5 states to pass Ethan's Law.

I am emotionally and mentally exhausted, but I will not stop until there is a cultural shift in this country where it becomes second nature to secure your weapons around unsupervised children.

If you believe in protecting children from gun violence, please follow and repost.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

More than half of mental health appointments — 55 percent — are being conducted remotely, mainly via videoconferencing rather than in-person visits, according to a brief research report in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

https://t.co/olods7x6AB

[Nick Clairmont @NickClairmont1]

That Hemingway baby shoes short story can’t be outdon- oh

[André Picard @picardonhealth]

Putting psychiatric nurses inside a Vancouver Police Department’s operations centre dramatically reduced the number of times “a cop with a gun” was sent to a #MentalHealth emergency, by @fumano https://t.co/QmHukPBpYH via @VancouverSun @VancouverPD #nursing

[Dr. Cynthia Graham @cygraham_graham]

Help protect the @kinseyinstitute Go to https://t.co/yOeMK0Lb4Z for links on how to support the Kinsey and follow @FriendsofKinsey ! Thanks for your support! #standwithkinsey

[International Academy of Sex Research @TheIASR]

We are thrilled to announce that our plenary speaker and symposia have been selected for our 50th annual meeting in Berlin! Full details can be found here: https://t.co/tDI26Fe2ZG

[John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch]

NEW: an ideological divide is emerging between young men and women in many countries around the world.

I think this one of the most important social trends unfolding today, and provides the answer to several puzzles.

[Jasmine 🌌🔭 @astro_jaz]

wake up babe, new unit of measurement dropped

[Kinsey Institute @kinseyinstitute]

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITY: The #KinseyInstitute is hiring a #Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work with Dr. Zoë Peterson on collaborative research into #SexualViolence - prevention, measurement, victim experience. #sexresearch #postdoc

Please share 🎉

https://t.co/HzJU2rt0Ik

[Jordyn Monaghan @jordyn_monaghan]

Our 4th Annual Canadian Forensic Psychology Virtual Conference is only a few weeks away! Register now to join us on February 9th over Zoom. We are looking forward to learning from our many incredible presenters and speakers this year!

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

@AquagirlRocks @stephens_skye @chellaroblesx Example: Most of the cases I've testified in don't show on CanLII, despite their claim for "all written decisions distributed by courts and tribunals".

You will either have to accept a subset or [insert pained emoji] get written decisions from individual courts, which costs $$$

[Michael Seto @MCSeto]

@AquagirlRocks @stephens_skye @chellaroblesx You may get more coverage using multi databases but you will not get all sentencing decisions.

My recall is that many routine decisions are not captured. More notable cases, particularly those resulting in appeals and higher court rulings, are favored.