Practice Innovations, Vol 11(2), Jun 2026, 124-138; doi:10.1037/pri0000291
Evidence suggests that professional sexual misconduct (including sexual harassment, sexual assault, sex with a patient, and sexual boundary violations) is common. Research on the predictors of professional sexual misconduct has previously pointed to personality dysfunction and other characteristics that may be linked to personality pathology (e.g., impulsivity, limited empathy, externalizing blame); notably, these characteristics also seem to overlap with facets of criminal thinking (i.e., thoughts conducive to antisocial behavior and crime), although criminal thinking among professionals has not yet been tested. Using program evaluation data from an intensive outpatient treatment program for people with professional issues and pathological personality traits, we conducted secondary data analyses to evaluate differences in personality pathology and criminal thinking styles between professionals (i.e., people working in medicine, law, business, and clerical fields) with a history of sexual boundary violations compared with professionals without sexual boundary violations (N = 28). We found that compared with their peers without sexual professional misconduct, professionals with sexual misconduct had significantly higher rates of narcissistic personality disorder/traits and significantly higher levels of criminal thinking. We also found evidence that programming was helpful for professionals with sexual misconduct, as they demonstrated significantly less criminal thinking from before to after treatment. These findings offer preliminary evidence for targeting both personality pathology and criminal thinking patterns—which is typically a treatment target for people in the criminal legal system—among professionals with a history of sexual misconduct regardless of legal involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)