ing with the above suggested legislative device the committee believes that selected sex offenders make satisfactory probationers capable of utilizing psychiatric treatment. The committee is unreserved in its conviction that the committed sex offender should be actively treated in a non-penal institution." The sexual offender will not loom large numerically as a hospital problem. The stigma of sex offense officially attached to the sex offender committed to a penal institution creates a formidable obstacle to treatment. At best consistency demands that if we diagnose the sex offender as mentally disordered he should be treated as a mental case in a facility for that purpose. The committee can visualize only one avenue of compromise: commitment to a penal institution is feasible only in the event that all sentences are indeterminate and penal institutions are transformed into realistic treatment facilities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The committee recognizes that the recommendations to follow achieve for the adult sex offender essentially the same treatment now extended to children in juvenile court jurisdiction. The committee recommends that any legislation aimed at the control and treatment of sexual behavior contain the following elements:

Essential Element of Definition.-The essential element of definition is the existence of mental illness as diagnosed by expert opinion and as satisfying the existing legal definition of the

same.

Basis of Jurisdiction.-The basis of jurisdiction should depend on whether there is a charge or a conviction for criminal offense. Initiation of Proceedings.-In the case of a person accused of a sex offense, upon petition and affidavit of any person or upon its own initiative the court may order a psychiatric examination and report. In the case of a convicted first sex offender a psychiatric examination and report should be mandatory.

Tribunal and Proceedings.-The court should be one of record and there should be no jury participation. Private hearings should be discretionary with the court and hearings should be held within thirty days of the petition or of the conviction.

Medical Examination and Qualification of Examiners.-The psychiatrists employed by the court should be qualified by at least five years of exclusive practice in the diagnosis and treatment of mental diseases. The court should not be bound by the psychiatric findings.

Effect of Commitment on Criminal Proceedings. In the case of the convicted offender, commitment shall be in lieu of a sentence to a penal institution. In the case of the accused defendant the diagnosis of mental illness shall constitute a defense to the crime.

Disposition. The court shall have the discretionary power to commit the convicted offender as a mentally ill person to a hospital facility in lieu of a sentence or to release the offender subject to special conditions of probation.

6. The argument of opposition to the treatment of sex offenders in state hospitals rests on the contention that state hospitals possess inadequate facilities in both housing and personnel, that sex offenders do not mix well with others, that treatment is unsystematized and difficult, and that there are no criteria of recovery.