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Drugs For Paedophiles, Says Lewis SPEAKER Peter Lewis has called for convicted pedophiles to be put under medication to prevent repeat offences, with chemical castration as a last resort. He lashed out yesterday on the issue, saying police treatment of an incident involving a boy was "a real outrage". There are hormone- based medicines, that can reduce sexual urges, but it is "unlikely" they are very effective, Australian Medical Association vice-president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal says. Police admitted on Thursday they had failed to properly investigate a man who tried to befriend a boy, 12, at a suburban bus stop by giving him a note. "It is a salutary but very sick commentary on the values of the police and the Government that they offer $10,000 to catch a violent criminal rock thrower but will do nothing to catch this slimy, adult gutter snipe," Mr Lewis said. Adelaide Avdertiser (22-1-2005) |
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MP Suggests Castration For sex Offenders The State Government should consider chemical castration for child sex offenders, the Opposition spokesman on justice, Andrew Humpherson said yesterday. But his leader, John Brogden immediately distanced himself from the idea, saying: "It is not policy: it is an idea of Humpherson's." The NSW Minister for Justice, John Hatzistergos, also rejected the idea, saying the Government's advice was that international trials of chemical castration techniques showed they simply did not work. But Mr Humpherson said he was responding to revelations that a convicted pedophile worked in contact with children at a NSW dance school while on parole and that another is about to be released into the community from Long Bay jail. He said the safety of the community had to be paramount. Mr Humpherson said the case of one-pedophile, Andrew Manners, who worked at a dance school with 10-year-old children, showed how ineffective parole supervision was in NSW. "The parole system has failed the community in this case, and in others cannot guarantee rehabilitation and a halt to reoffending," he said. Mr Humpherson said chemical castration was reducing recidivism rates to as low as 5 per cent in countries including Sweden, Denmark, Canada and some US states. "Chemical castration should be tied to parole," he said. A probation and parole officer, Elizabeth said yesterday that she did not regret exposing a pedophile through unauthorised use of the criminal database. Elizabeth the president of the Scottish Dancing Association in NSW, raised the alarm when she discovered that Andrew Manners was teaching at his mother's dancing school in Sydney. His family are demanding an apology for what they claim is a breach of privacy. But Elizabeth told the Herald: "I have no regrets." She said there was a "very fine line" between helping to rehabilitate offenders and the "protection of the community". The Sydney Morning Herald (24-11-2004) Anne Davies/ Leonie Lamont |
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An Option To Cut Sex Crimes Anything That Can Help STOP SEXUAL ABUSE Should Be Considered Provera (medroxyprogesterone) and the long acting form, Depo-Provera, are progesterone derivatives, used to treat violent sex offenders. Provera reduces testosterone levels in males, and may also compete with testosterone for receptors in the brain. This may help reduce violent sexual fantasies, as well as reduce the actual behaviours. Side effects can include weight gain and increased blood pressure. You can find good discussions of this agent in the article by Gottesman and Schubert, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 1993, vol.43, pp.182-188 and by O'Connor & Baker, Acta Psychiatric Scandinavinca 1983, vol.67, pp. 399-403. The Gottesman article also has numerous references. "That this is not a castration because castration means sterilisation and this does not do sterilisation to anybody." "This does not prevent anyone from fathering children and it does not prevent people to have sexual activity. But activities have shown that it reduces the desire to have sexual activity and take the hormones down." "It will give a false sense of security to communities by causing citizens to believe falsely that sexual predators taking the medication will not attack anyone. It is important to explain the ramifications of this drug. "If lowering the testosterone level is such a major part of chemical castration, then it certainly doesn't help if the paedophile can obtain a shot of testosterone. |
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CHEMICAL CASTRATION THE State Government is considering chemical castration for serial sex offenders as part of a prisoner rehabilitation program. Corrective Services Minister Terry Roberts revealed the controversial option yesterday when announcing $6 million Cabinet-approved funding for a four-year rehabilitation program. Mr Roberts said the Government would study the effectiveness of chemical castration in other jurisdictions before deciding if it would commit to it for South Australia. "What we're committing to at the moment is looking for best-practice programs," he said. "It could be one of the programs we have a look at over the next few months for possible introduction into the South Australian prison system" is chemical castration. "Cabinet has just signed off on the funding so the process will now start." Legislation allowing for voluntary chemical castration of sexual offenders was debated in State Parliament in 1997 but did not make it through the Legislative Council because of the October state election. Mr Roberts said the Government will consider chemical castration among a range of possible options for rehabilitating serial sex offenders. Medical experts yesterday sounded caution on the controversial option, which was blasted as "barbaric" by civil libertarians. There are now 118 sex offenders behind bars in South Australia. The government has committed $1.5 million a year-over four years for new rehabilitation programs, mainly for violent criminals and sex offenders. Chemical castration has only limited benefits, according to forensic psychologist Stuart Byrne, director of the psychology clinic at the University of South Australia. The method lowered sexual arousal but did not change habitual behaviour of sexual predators, he said. "It's not at all 100 per cent successful for those sorts of reasons," he said. However, it could be an option for offenders who were in "angry denial" about their problem and not open to other therapy, he said. Dr William Heddle, state president of the Australian Medical Association, said using these procedures "in a punitive way" did not sit well with medical ethics. A spokesman for Mr Roberts said some overseas evidence suggested it could reduce repeat offences by up to 90 per cent. The government will take expert advice on appropriate programs for the state's jails in coming months. Offenders will then be recommended for programs by officers from the Department of Correctional Services. The acting head of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties. Cameron Murphy, said procedures like chemical castration were barbaric and should be rejected by a civilised society. "There's no real evidence that these sorts of techniques achieve their objectives... there are numerous alternative ways to protect the community," he said. Former Liberal MP Lorraine Rosenberg, who introduced the first chemical castration bill to Parliament in 1997, said she was glad to see the Government considering taking up the issue. "It was amazing the amount of support l got at the time, especially from within the prison system," she said yesterday. Opposition legal spokesman Robert Lawson said he would want to be convinced that programs like chemical castration worked before supporting them, and no evidence had been produced by the Government to suggest that they did. "Any introduction of chemical castration in this state needs the closest and most critical of examinations". Adelaide Advertiser 10-9-2003 Maria Moscaritolo/ Greg Kelton |
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