ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, August 30, 1996 TAG: 9608300032
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SACRAMENTO, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
"CHEMICAL CASTRATION" for repeat child molesters would be required in a bill nearing passage in California. But some have doubts as to its effectiveness.
The state that took a hard line on criminals with its ``three strikes'' legislation is now about to adopt the nation's first law requiring repeat child molesters to undergo chemical castration.
Despite protests from civil libertarians and warnings from therapists that the injections won't curb some molesters' appetites, Gov. Pete Wilson has said he will sign the bill, which requires two-time sex offenders to take the hormone-suppressing drug Depo-Provera upon parole.
Drafted by a victims' rights activist and introduced by Assemblyman Bill Hoge, a Republican from Pasadena, the bill has received near-unanimous votes in both houses of the Legislature. It faces a final vote in the Assembly this week.
Similar legislative efforts are under way in Texas, Massachusetts and Wisconsin.
The weekly drug injections would be optional after a first molestation offense and mandatory after a second crime against a child under 13. Offenders could choose to be surgically castrated instead.
The American Civil Liberties Union has already promised a legal challenge.
``This bill poses serious, unresolved legal problems regarding some very fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to privacy, the right to procreate, and the right to exercise control over one's body,'' the ACLU said.
The injections are seen as a way of fighting what is often a compulsive type of behavior. Attorney General Janet Reno has put the repeat-offender rate among child molesters at as high as 75 percent. Other estimates are even higher.
Backers of the bill cite studies in European countries with chemical castration laws. Hoge said repeat-offender rates among child molesters in Europe have dropped from almost 100 percent to just 2 percent.
But experts who deal with sex criminals have doubts.
``The notion that we can just give dangerous offenders a shot and not have to worry about them can be misleading,'' said Dr. Fred Berlin, founder of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at Johns Hopkins University.
Nancy O'Malley, a prosecutor in Alameda County, agreed, saying some child molesters are motivated not by sexual desire for children but by a need for power and control.
The castration bill was drawn up by Susan Carpenter-McMillan, executive director of the Pasadena-based Women's Coalition, after consultation with victims of a serial rapist.
The women originally wanted the bill to apply to all rapists but settled for the more narrow bill.
``If this doesn't pass, we'll bring it back again and again and again,'' McMillan said. ``We're not talking about cutting off their testicles. Maybe someday, but not now.''
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB