Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 1993, Vol. 24, No. 3, 374-377 Copyright 1993 by the American Psychological Association Inc 0735-7028/93/53.00 Licensing Disciplinary Actions for Psychologists Who Have Been Sexually Involved With a Client: Some Information About Offenders Kenneth S. Pope A search through a large state's psychology-licensing disciplinary records for a 28-month period identified the 22 cases in which sex with a client had led to disciplining a therapist. Information is presented about offender age, gender, and marital status; for each case, the number of clients involved and whether they were adults or minors are provided. Gathering information about therapists who become sex- ually involved with their clients may not only enhance under- standing of how therapist-client sex occurs but also guide pre- vention efforts and education, enabling therapists to acknowl- edge, accept, and handle sexual feelings about their clients safely, ethically, and therapeutically (see, e.g., Pope, Sonne, & Holroyd, 1993). Formal demographic studies of psychologists who sexually exploit clients tend to draw on two sources of information: self-report surveys and surveys in which thera- pists provide information about clients who reported to them sexual involvement with a previous therapist. This research suggests that men offend at higher rates than do women. In national self-report studies of psychologists published in peer- reviewed journals (see Table 1), for example, the percentage of male offenders is never as low as, and in one study is nine times larger than, that for female offenders (though when the base rate is low, the difference may not achieve statistical signifi- cance). The research also suggests that exploited clients are much more likely to be female. For example, Table 2, which presents surveys of subsequent therapists, published in peer-re- viewed journals, shows that many (about 44-65%) surveyed therapists report having encountered exploited patients and that the number of these patients who are female may be as high as 94%.' Formal demographic studies published in peer-reviewed journals rarely report data about offender age, marital status, and tendency to exploit minor clients. Bouhoutsos, Holroyd, Lerman, Forer, and Greenberg (1983), however, having sur- veyed psychologists about their patients who had been sexually involved with previous therapists, reported that 559 offenders had an average age of 42 or 43 years. Butler and Zelen (1977) interviewed 20 offenders (who volunteered for the study, and thus were not randomly sampled) whose average age was 52 years. They found that 90% of the offenders reported being KENNETH S. POPE, PhD, ABPP, conducts an independent practice. His books include Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling (with M. J. T. Vasquez), The MMPI, MMPl-2, and MMPI-A in Court: A Practical Guide for Expert Witnesses and Attorneys (with J. N. Butcher & J. See- len), and Sexual Feelings in Psychotherapy: Explorations for Therapists and Therapists-in-Training (with J. L. Sonne & J. Holroyd). CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS ARTICLE should be addressed to Kenneth S. Pope, 11747 Sunset Boulevard, #325, Los Angeles, Califor- nia 90049-2988. vulnerable, needy, or lonely. These "high-need states were re- lated to unsatisfying marriages, recent separations and/or di- vorces" (p. 142). Research suggests that marital status may be an important variable. A study of sexually exploited patients found that "severity of impacts can be predicted by ... the marital status of the practitioner" (Feldman-Summers & Jones, 1984). Finally, a survey of psychologists about their patients who had been exploited by previous therapists found that about 5% of the 958 patients had been minors when the exploitation occurred (Pope & Vetter, 1991). In addition to Butler & Williams' (1985) more general inves- tigation of state-licensing disciplinary actions, which reported five violations that "involved sexual behavior with clients" who were female adults (p. 509), a review of the literature failed to locate any published articles that used licensing disciplinary actions as a source of demographic information about psycholo- gist offenders and their clients. Readers interested in more gen- eral information about licensing and ethics complaints, mal- practice suits, criminal cases, and legislative efforts focusing on therapist-client sex are referred to the work of such pioneers as Bouhoutsos (1984), Brodsky (1989), Cummings and Sobel (1985), George (1985), Kane (1987), Schoener (1988a, 1988b, 1989a, 1989b), Sell, Gottlieb, and Schoenfeld (1986; see also, Gottlieb, Sell, & Schoenfeld, 1988), and Vinson (1987). Issues regarding assessment of offenders are discussed by Pope, Butcher, and Seelen (1993, pp. 177-186). As sources of information, licensing actions are not superior to the self-report studies and reports of subsequent treating therapists. Whether an offender receives discipline depends on a formal complaint (usually filed by the patient), evidence that is both admissible and credible, and the complex processes for handling complaints. Many factors (e.g., legislative changes, ad- ministrative priorities, budgetary constraints, and high-profile cases) may affect the number and type of complaints that are filed, opened as formal cases, adequately investigated, and moved toward informal settlement or formal adjudication dur- ' Consistent with this trend, a national survey of APA Divisions 12 (Clinical Psychology), 29 (Psychotherapy), and 42 (Independent Prac- tice) found that 2.19% of the male clinicians and 4.58%of the female clinicians reported engaging in sex, as adults, with their own therapist (Pope & Feldman-Summers, 1992). 374 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.