Abstract

ROBERT L. SADOFF M.D. 1 , HERMANN A. ROETHER M.A. 2 , , and JOSEPH J. PETERS M.D. 3 1 Group Psychotherapist, Center for Studies in Sexual Deviance, Philadelphia General Hospital, Pa., Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Temple University Health Science Center, and Lecturer in Law, Temple University School of Law, Philadelphia, Pa. 2 Sociologist, Group Psychotherapy Project, Center for Studies in Sexual Deviance, Philadelphia General Hospital, Pa. 3 Director and is also Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Director, Group Psychotherapy, Philadelphia General Hospital, Center for Studies in Sexual Deviance, Philadelphia General Hospital, Pa. A study of offenders' attitudes toward enforced group psychotherapy revealed that positive attitudes about the experience were correlated with treatment failures. Patients who said the group was helpful were rearrested more often than those who complained about it. The examining psychiatrist was significantly less successful in predicting future criminal behavior than was the psychiatrist who had treated the offender in a group.