Paedophilia. A Psychological, Judicial and Sexualogical Opinion in a Criminal Case. Diagnosis Methods

Abstract

The article aims at presenting the process of creating a psychological and sexuological opinion for judicial purposes by a psychologist or sexologist expert in case of a person suspected of a sexual dysfunction like paedophilia. The Author has focused on the actual significance of such an opinion for the court. The greatest difficulty is the fact that the expert must reconcile two roles: of a therapist being an objective listener and a specialist being an objective researcher, which often contributes to methodological problems. Heterogeneity of the phenomenon of paedophilia and a few methods adapted to the Polish conditions hinders the research. As a consequence, it is difficult to put the correct diagnosis and to predict the possibility of dysfunctional behaviour recurrence in case of such perpetrators.