Legal Aspects in Treating Rapists

The development of new evaluation treatment methods for rapists and child molesters has created unique legal and ethical problems for therapists and researchers dealing with this population. These clients by definition are more dangerous than those normally dealt with by psychotherapists. As a consequence, greater care must be taken to protect the client, the therapist, the staff, and potential victims from the sexual assaults of the rapist or child molester. Rada outlines the various legal and ethical problems involved in dealing with such dangerous individuals.

A critical element of working with a child molester or rapist is to have a detailed understanding of his history, his current behavior, his response to treatment, and his current ability to control his behavior. The very act of obtaining such information, however, generates issues of confidentiality and privileged communication normally not dealt with by the average therapist. Rada explores the issues of confidentiality, privileged communication, and informed consent to acquaint the reader with the potential problems incurred while working with such clients.