Sexual Offenders and the Criminal System: Perceptions, Beliefs, and Science

This book demonstrates that the criminal justice system in the United States has allowed the natural emotions surrounding sexuality to allow the minority of sexual offenders who are truly dangerous to be merged with the majority of offenders who pose little, if any, risk to be at large. Such aggregations force the system to exhaust resources while ignoring the burgeoning research into the assessment and treatment of such offenders. Relying on research in the literature combined with his many years of experience, Maletzky details how the system operates at present and offers suggestions for change to re-align what we know about sexual offending with how such offenders might be better managed within the criminal justice system.

The work provides an overview of the process from the original apprehension of sexual offenders through the determination of their guilt, their detention in prisons or jails, and their supervision following incarceration. Allowing scientific advances to inform decisions in these matters will not only enhance public safety but will spare unnecessary expense, save taxpayers money, and actually serve to prevent future recidivism among such offenders.

This work is thought-provoking for attorneys, prosecutors, legal assistants and law clerks, members of the judiciary, those who teach or are students of the administration of justice, those who assess or treat sexual offenders, and offenders and their families affected by the system.

Barry Maletzky, M.D., graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in psychophysiology and from The State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Stony Brook Campus, with an M.D. He completed a residency in psychiatry at the Oregon Health Sciences University. Following two years of service in the military, he entered the practice of psychiatry in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Maletzky began specializing in several fields in psychiatry, including the treatment of severe depression, the use of electroconvulsive therapy, and the assessment and treatment of sexual offenders. In 1975 he founded the Portland Sexual Abuse Clinic to treat sexual offenders and their victims. Since that time, the clinic has become one of the largest and most persistent such clinics in the world.

Dr. Maletzky has been conducting clinical research projects since his residency days. He is the author of more than 65 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, ten chapters in edited textbooks, and six original textbooks of psychiatry in various subspecialties. He served as editor of a medical journal from 1994 through 2004. Dr. Maletzky is the recipient of numerous military and civilian awards, including the Dean’s Award from OHSU. He partially retired in 2007 in order to devote more time to his teaching, research, volunteer, and consulting activities, including membership on the boards of nonprofit organizations working with those just released from prison, those who subsist below the poverty line, and those within the LGBTQ community.