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It was quite inevitable that psycho-analysis should have sooner or later exerted its influence on the field of criminology as a whole, and on the courts of law in particular, and this for two reasons: (i) The problem of the psychological factors involved in a given crime is an old one. Medico-psychological experts have struggled with formalistic courts since the dark days of witch-hunting in the early sixteenth century, and psycho-analytic psychology could not help but influence the psychiatric expert sooner or later. (ii) Psycho-analysis very early showed its effective influence on the social sciences, and the social sciences became concomitantly more and more interested in criminology and penology.
But despite this influence the law itself—and by this I mean the penal codes and the court procedures in criminal cases—have remained relatively immune to psycho-analytic psychology. Here and there we can find exceptions, like the introduction of therapeutic instead of punitive measures in certain cases in Mexico, or the recent so-called Dewey Law governing the legal disposition of sex offenders in the State of New York. These exceptions are rare; moreover, in many cases they represent little psychological enlightenment.
The Dewey Law, for instance, recognizes the need for the therapy of sex offenders rather than the need for punishment—apparently a sign of true progress. According to the Dewey Law a so-called sex offender is given an indeterminate sentence; from one day to life imprisonment. Once the sentence has begun, the prisoner thus convicted is presumably to be treated, 'given psychotherapy' as the newest vernacular puts it. Depending upon the outcome of this psychotherapy, the prisoner might be cured of his criminal sex affliction (anything from exhibitionism or homosexuality to sexual assault would fall under this rubric) and set free, or if proved incurable he would be left in prison for the rest of his life.
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