Ethical and Legal Issues in the Assessment and Treatment of Juvenile Sex Offenders

Abstract

Although a rapidly growing field, the evaluation and treatment of juvenile sexual offenders represents an area of practice fraught with clinical, ethical, and legal complexity. This article discusses the implications of new registration and community notification legislation for clinical practice, including the ethical issues they give rise to and the challenges they present to the field. Areas of clinical practice that are controversial and increase practitioner vulnerability to ethical and legal mishap are reviewed, including: involuntary treatment, preadjudication evaluation, phallometric and polygraph assessment, and cognitive-behavioral and psycho-pharmacologic treatment of deviant sexual arousal. Recommendations are made as to the management of these issues and the establishment of ethically sound patterns of clinical practice.