Michel Bénézech

Michel Bénézech (1942 to 2025) was a French psychiatrist, Doctor of Laws and professor at the University of Bordeaux, an expert in clinical criminology and forensic psychiatry. Born in Agen, he trained in medicine, psychology, anthropology and law, defended a doctoral thesis in law and criminal sciences on the criminal liability of people with a Y-chromosome abnormality in 1973, and gained the habilitation in 1992. He began as a registrar at the Cadillac-sur-Garonne psychiatric hospital and its forensic unit for difficult patients, and from 1979 headed the regional psychiatric service of Bordeaux-Gradignan prison for the rest of his career. In 1985 he introduced systematic HIV screening for intravenous drug users on admission and made public the high rate of infection found among prisoners, resisting pressure to stop the programme. He promoted a scientific and multidisciplinary approach to criminology.