Robert Prentky

Robert Prentky

Professor of Forensic Psychology, School of Psychology and Counseling

Contact Information

Courses

• Psychology of Criminal Behavior
• Forensic Assessment
• Psycholegal Analysis of Criminal Cases

Research

• Risk Assessment with Juvenile Offenders
• 7-year Follow-up of Children with Sexual Misconduct
• Campus Sexual Assault
• Pornography Use in Offenders and College Students

Education

• PhD, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of MA, Amherst
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of York, York, England
• Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Rochester Medical School

Academic Profile

I have practiced as a forensic psychologist for the past 35+ years, and in that capacity assessed or supervised the assessment of 2,000+ offenders in 30-40 prisons around the country. I have been conducting research on sexual offenders for the past 38 years, with support from 20 state and federal research grants.  My most gratifying teaching experiences are acquainting my graduate students with the subtle art of examining the clients of the criminal justice system, the mismatch between what we understand as clinicians and what we confront working in the legal system, and the frequent abuses of science in the courtroom. I have benefitted greatly from the tales of Sir Conan Doyle and make frequent references to Sherlock Holmes, permitting us to make a much closer connection to the common ground between what we do as psychologists and what criminal investigators do (with the obvious exception of crime scene analysis!). Overall, it is working with my graduate students that I most treasure and that has inspired me as an instructor.