Carson psychologist goes on TV

A Carson City psychologist will appear on the MSNBC program Special Edition, which airs Monday night.

Dr. Patricia Davin is a clinical psychologist and a marriage and family therapist in Carson City. She said she was interviewed Feb. 20 for a program on female sexual abusers.

A native Nevadan who grew up in Lovelock and has lived in Carson City since 1979, Davin did her doctoral thesis on the topic.

"I'm the co-author of a book entitled 'Female Sexual Abusers,'" she said.

Davin said she interviewed more than 100 women at 12 prisons for her thesis.

"The really exciting part is that the material really has not hit the media," she said. "It is relatively newer material that has a good scientific base to it."

She is confident the program will deal seriously with the issue.

"I watched the program enough to be happy with it," she said. "I really have a fine feeling about how this will turn out."

She said the crew flew in from New York to tape her interview and some footage of the Carson area.

"How could I ever forget that date?" she said. "What an experience."

Davin said program producers decided to do the program after the airing of "Mary Kay Letourneau: All-American Girl" on USA network in January.

Letourneau is serving a prison sentence after she had two children with a student, who was 13 years old when the affair began.

The network contacted Davin's publisher, the Safer Society Foundation in Vermont.

"They are the national clearing house for the prevention and treatment of child abuse," she said. "The producers contacted them and asked them if they had any current scientific information on this topic. The publisher sent them the book, and then they asked how they could get a hold of me."