Assessing the risk of recidivism in physicians with histories of sexual misconduct

Physicians who engage in sexual conduct with patients usually cause serious harm and have a high rate of recidivism. Although offending physicians may lose their privilege to practice, they have the right to appeal for restor ation of the license. Yet medical licensing board members do not currently have any clear standards by which to predict whether a given physician is l ikely to abuse again. Using New York as a paradigm, this paper offers pract ical, clinically based guidelines for assessing the risk of restoring an of fending physician's license. These guidelines are derived from psychoanalyt ic theories of character, the insights of therapists who have worked with a busive physicians, and the psychiatric model of assessing dangerousness. Re cognizing character patterns and psychological vulnerabilities of physician s with histories of sexual misconduct will help board members identify thos e who are at high risk of abusing again if their licenses are restored.