Case report: a convicted sex offender with dissociative identity disorder.

A case history is presented of a man with dissociative identity disorder who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 99 years in prison. According to the assailant's host personality, the rape was committed by an alter personality who wanted to punish the host by getting caught and thereby causing the host to lose his family. The rape also appeared to be an undoing of an abduction at gunpoint the man had experienced at age 11. It is important to understand the psychology of sex offenders with dissociative disorders because many will be released from prison. If even a minority of sex offenders have treatable dissociative disorders, future crimes could potentially be prevented with correct diagnosis and treatment.