Restructuring sex offender sentencing: A therapeutic jurisprudence approach to the criminal justice process

Although the notion of providing specialized treatment to sex offenders has been widely, and at times enthusiastically, embraced by lawmakers and crim inal justice professionals, the larger criminal justice system often mainta ins and fosters policies and mandates that act as disincentives for offende rs to seek out or participate meaningfully in specialized sex offender trea tment. This article employs the therapeutic jurisprudence perspective in ex amining many of the issues and problems associated with adjudicating and tr eating sex offenders and presents a "treatment track" or deferred sentencin g Model, which while primarily focusing on offender adjudication, prioritiz es the therapeutic needs of offenders and emphasizes the interrelated natur e of various criminal justice system components associated with sex offende r cases and each component's potential therapeutic impact on the others.