Edwin Sutherland's Research on the Origins of Sexual Psychopath Laws: An Early Case Study of the Medicalization of Deviance

Sutherland claimed that sexual psychopath laws were largely a result of the manipulation of public opinion by the press and the influence of psychiatrists on the legislative process. However, there are obvious gaps in his documentation of these laws and in his evidence on news stories about sex crimes. We analyze major newspapers in each state that passed a sexual psychopath law and find far greater diversity in the coverage of sex crimes than Sutherland claimed. Based on material in Sutherland's research files, interviews with his former students and colleagues, and a review of his other published works, we argue that Sutherland's interest in studying sexual psychopath laws was to debunk psychiatry. His strong opposition to psychiatric “interest groups” may account for his lack of careful attention to evidence and for his premature dismissal of alternative, structural explanations of the origins of this legislation.