Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Calif. OKs chemical castration

California becomes the first state mandating "chemical castration" for repeat child molesters under legislation signed by Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson's signing Tuesday is likely to create interest in Nevada to approve a similar bill during the 1997 Legislature, says an assemblywoman serving on a subcommittee studying criminal sexual behavior.

"I will support the bill and probably introduce it," said Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas.

The subcommittee, chaired by state Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, asked in June for a bill to be drafted allowing chemical castration of certain sex offenders sent to prison or on parole or probation. The Legislature convenes in January.

"It's a good idea," Ohrenschall said. "We need to give them an implant so they have a year's supply, or enough so they don't have to come back for treatment while on parole."

Ohrenschall said it is unfeasible to keep some offenders in prison because of overcrowding.

"How much do we have to pay to keep building new prisons?" she asked.

In California, beginning Jan. 1, a second conviction for a serious sex offense against a child under 13 means the rapist must start weekly hormone injections before his parole.

The state plans to use Depo-Provera, a women's birth-control drug that in men lowers testosterone levels, and therefore the sex drive.

Medical experts question the technique, pointing out that many rapists and molesters are driven by the urge to overpower and control rather than to have sex.

Backers of the bill cited studies in European countries where the procedure is used. A Danish study of more than 900 chemically impotent offenders found a repeater rate of just 2.2 percent, according to Assemblyman Bill Hoge, a Pasadena Republican who sponsored the bill.

Attorney General Janet Reno estimates the U.S. recidivism rate is as high as 75 percent; other studies put it even higher. Of California's 66,000 registered sex offenders, up to 40,000 were convicted of assaulting a child, according to the state Justice Department.

"Child molesters can't stop because they have a compulsion to do what they do," Wilson said. "And as long as they have that urge, they'll keep on victimizing children unless we do something about it."

That "urge" isn't always about sex, so it can't always be controlled through hormones, said Susan North, a lobbyist for the California Psychiatric Association. She worried that the law would give people a false sense of security.

Other opponents, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, saw it as a throwback to the Middle Ages.

"As long as it prevents one predator ... then keeping it on the books is worth every ounce of criticism its opponents can muster," Wilson said.

He signed the bill at Placidi Safe House for abused children, in a San Fernando Valley neighborhood where several youngsters have been attacked or threatened since 1993. Parents and authorities suspect a single attacker, known as the "valley molester."

"I have a message for those skulking in the shadows," Wilson said. "You better stay in the shadows or leave this state. We will not tolerate your conduct."

Weekly injections of Depo-Provera would be an option for judges sentencing a first offender. They would be mandatory after a second conviction for the same crime.

The injections would be a condition of parole. Once they stop, the effects wear off. Convicts also have the dubious option of permanent, surgical castration.

The bill was drafted 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 measure to apply to all rapists, but they agreed on child molesters as a first step.

The bill won final legislative approval last month.

Similar legislative efforts failed this year in Texas, Massachusetts and Wisconsin.

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