Evil at Our Table

Once inside the prison system, how can a pathological, sexual sadist who needs to be confined to a mental institution, be distinguished from the perpetrator of a sexual crime who is unlikely to ever transgress again? And who can say?

Working under California's Sexually Violent Predator Law, Samantha Stein, PsyD, faces such offenders alone, one by one, in a prison interview room. As a forensic psychologist, her high-stakes decisions can determine the difference between a life lived back in society or one condemned to indefinite incarceration.

Dr. Stein opens her mind to her subjects' life stories—their crimes, their grim pathologies, their frustrations and demons, their childhoods, their sociopathic reasoning, and often, too, their genuine and civilized regret. She doesn't hesitate to hold them accountable, but she acknowledges their humanity.

Part forensics, part exploration of human nature, Evil at Our Table is the first in-depth account by a treatment provider and evaluator in the field.

In this important book, Dr. Stein investigates salient issues of our time: the intersection of good and evil, crime, punishment, law, and psychology, and our very humanity.