The current disenchantment with the welfare model and an ideological preference for a punitive approach to delinquency derives from the general belief by both professionals and the public that treatment is largely ineffective and that a therapeutic approach may be more coercive than punishment based on offense severity. Although child psychiatrists tend to be aware of the impact of family interactions, physical disorders, and environmentally stimulated stress on antisocial juveniles, general psychiatrists who work with adult patients prefer to relegate intractable deviant persons to punitive criminal justice processing. There should be stronger links between child and adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, and general psychiatry in the areas of training, research, and practice. All psychiatric specialties should resist public pressures to give up a humanitarian approach to deviancy, particularly among adult offenders who do not manifest serious mental disorders. 56 references.