NCJ Number
129243
Date Published
1990
Length
162 pages
Annotation
This examination of legislative mandates and clinical quandaries regarding the treatment of sexual psychopaths focuses on the validity of legal distinctions between "felony" sexual offenders and "criminal sexual psychopaths" and implications for the treatment of sex offenders.
Abstract
More than half the U.S. States have laws that distinguish between those whose sex offenses are incidental to other offenses ("felony" sexual offenders) and those who engage in "repetitive, habitual, or compulsive" sex offenses ("criminal sexual psychopaths"). Such legislation specifies that criminal sexual psychopaths must be treated rather than punished. The literature on various treatment approaches is equivocal about treatment effectiveness. This book examines whether there is a prospective right to effective treatment and notes the political and ethical questions involved in potentially more effective, but controversial, aversive treatment approaches. The ethical burden on mental health clinicians in this context is significant. Although the definition of a sexual psychopath is essentially a legal rather than a psychiatric label, judges tend to follow professional recommendations as to categorization. The book proposes that since the distinction between felony and psychopathic sexual offenders is not based on empirical assessments, it should be abandoned. The book further recommends that all criminal sexual offenders be punished, except those who opt for treatment and are certified by mental health professionals as likely to benefit from treatment. Funding to treat those so identified should be sufficient to provide the required resources. 600 references and a subject index