The activities of the forensic psychiatrist cover the entire period of an offender's involvement with the criminal justice system: evaluation and treatment prior to court confrontation, acting as an expert witness for the prosecution or defense, determining an individual's fitness to stand trial, advising on alternatives to imprisonment, and providing treatment in correctional facilities. While the psychiatry of the 1970's acknowledged the basic rights of disordered or deviant individuals, the focus of the 1980's will be the treatment of impoverished antisocial individuals, dangerous sex offenders, and compulsive aberrant offenders. The selection of a wide variety of treatment methods without labeling or stereotyping is the most promising treatment approach. The mainspring of penological thinking of the 1980's will be the emergence of the educational component in rehabilitating offenders, didactic information and vocational training will begin to supercede the uncertain medical-psychiatric therapies. Research is necessary with respect to indicators of potential dangerousness and intractable personality difficulties. The use of deep implant electrodes in the basic brain sites of emotion, in combination with in-depth psychological evaluation, may help to more accurately control violent behavior through the use of drugs. Eight references and a brief summary in French are included.