Posted on 05/10/2005 1:04:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Texas lawmakers made voluntary castration available for sex offenders in 1997, and since then, three have been surgically castrated.
While orchiectomy, surgical removal of the testes, may lower male testosterone levels and decrease sex drive, the procedure won't change the object of a pedophile's desire — children, said a psychologist who evaluated Texas' three castrated inmates.
"It doesn't normalize sexual interest," said Dr. Walter Meyer, an expert in sex offender therapy at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. "It just takes the edge off. I had one patient describe it as a vacation because it wasn't on his mind all the time."
Victims rights activists mirror Meyer's observations in their argument for returning child molester Larry Don McQuay to prison, saying that the procedure will not rehabilitate him. The notorious pedophile, who was released from prison last week, garnered national attention when he begged state prison officials to castrate him to prevent future sexual assaults.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least eight states allow some form of castration. Most states offering chemical castration use it as a punishment for some repeat sex offenders.
Chemical castration requires men to take drugs such as Depo-Provera or Lupron to reduce testosterone levels.
Castration is voluntary in Texas, and the procedure is surgical. Offenders must take chemical castration drugs before surgery to understand how their bodies might change with less testosterone.
"Texas law, in contrast to other states' laws, was a treatment bill, not a punishment bill," said Bill Winslade, a medical ethics professor at UTMB who serves as a liaison between the prison system and hospital, which provides health care for inmates.
Inspired by McQuay's requests, the Legislature made voluntary castration available in 1997. Prison officials will not release the names of the three who have had the procedure.
The first castration was conducted in December 2001. That inmate is serving a life sentence. The other castrations took place in March 2004. Inmate David Wayne Jones, a former East Dallas YMCA worker, has publicly said he had the procedure. McQuay, presumably, is the third inmate.
McQuay has not publicly said he had the procedure. McQuay's former lawyer, Paul C. Looney, would not make medical records available to reporters, but he has said McQuay told him in a letter that he was castrated last year.
Before the state could hire a surgeon to perform an orchiectomy, prison and health officials spent years establishing procedures, Winslade said.
Inmates who are at least 21 and have at least two sex-offender convictions must undergo at least 18 months of sex-offender treatment.
"I think it's correct to say the three people who underwent the procedure, to my knowledge, have expressed no regrets and felt it contributed to their ability to exercise self-control," Winslade said.
According to Winslade, up to a dozen more offenders who sought castration failed to go through with it or were denied the procedure. Meyer and Winslade said others were denied because they did not meet technical or psychological requirements.
According to a number of European studies, the procedure has shown reductions in male libido while also decreasing recidivism rates.
Recidivism rates of sex offenders castrated in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway ranged from 1.1 percent to 7.3 percent.
One German study found that 3 percent of men had been involved in sex offenses after castration while 46 percent of noncastrated men had been involved in sex offenses.
Many psychologists agree that if a pedophile has the surgery, he must also enroll in intensive treatment while being monitored closely.
"Sex-offending behavior is not solely driven by hormones. If you get rid of or reduce hormones, the problems aren't solved," said Dr. Karen Lawson, director of the sexual abuse treatment program in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine.
Meyer said McQuay, 41, had undergone months of treatment and evaluation. He is housed in Bexar County Jail's work-release facility, where he must wear an ankle monitoring device.
He will be monitored for 11 years. McQuay was released last week after serving eight years of a 20-year sentence because his time-served and good-behavior credit met state requirements for release under mandatory supervision.
Victims rights advocates, such as Polly Franks of the National Coalition for Victims in Action, say pedophiles should not be released because they cannot be rehabilitated.
"Even if Larry Don McQuay has been surgically castrated, he's still got his brain and his hands — the equipment and mindset to rape children," said Franks, who said Virginia serial rapist Joseph Frank Smith attacked her daughters.
Smith, known as the "Ski Mask Rapist," had been convicted of rape in Bexar County in 1983. He admitted to 200 sexual assaults of women and children in San Antonio.
His case became famous when he agreed to undergo chemical castration as a term of probation in 1983. A judge in San Antonio had ordered him chemically castrated by taking Depo-Provera, and he was featured on the program 60 Minutes as a possible cured rapist.
But he moved to the East Coast in the early 1980s and stopped taking the drugs in the early 1990s.
By 1987, Virginia police had received dozens of reports of a man wearing a bandanna breaking into homes. By 1998, Virginia authorities linked DNA evidence to Smith in a 1993 sexual assault on a 5-year-old girl.
Franks' two daughters were assaulted in 1995 by a man who matches Smith's description.
Before McQuay's pleas for surgical castration inspired the Legislature to permit the practice voluntarily, state District Judge Mike McSpadden's court thrust the topic into the national debate.
Since the early 1990s, McSpadden advocated castrating pedophiles, especially in the wake of the case of Steve Allen Butler in 1992. Butler was a retarded shoeshine worker convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1991 while he was still on probation for fondling a 7-year-old girl in 1989.
McSpadden could not be reached for comment.
Facing a 35-year prison sentence, Butler volunteered to be castrated in exchange for probation. McSpadden found a doctor to perform the surgery, but castration plans failed when Butler's lawyers said racism was a motivating factor.
Three years later, Houston was again at the center of the castration debate when local group Justice For All met with McQuay, after he pleaded with the state to castrate him. He admitted to molesting 240 children.
robert.crowe@chron.com
Just shoot the worthless perverts. 0% recidivism possible.
What are the odds that this treatment will prevent further crimes? Is it an improvement in safety?
Bailiff....whack his pee-pee....
..... but a good start.
choppin the wand off don't change the genie....the pervert is a magician at heart...take the stroll out behind the barn and and put the bullet in the brain that will never change.....
First off, as far as rapists go, remove the organ of offense and recidivism will be 0%.
Second, this kind of invalidates the argument that homosexuals are "innately" so, does it not? This seems to show that sexual deviants suffer from psychological problems, not hormone imbalances.
Thanks, Cheech.
ping to self for later pingout.
I don't know, I think castrating sex offenders on their first offense would go a long way toward prevention.
That's a pretty stiff penalty.
I'm sorry...
I think it's a warning to parents that this is not a cure.
No. The crime of rape is one of power over another. If one weapon is not functional, another will be used.
This is not a penalty, it is done upon request.
Oh. Well, it would make a great preventive measure for anyone contemplating such a crime. Unfortunately, lawyers are involved, so any kind of common sense will probably never happen.
I'll admit, I didn't read the article thoroughly. I see your point now (I tend to automatically equate psychologists to liberal apologists). Still, since we live in society not sensible enough bar pedophiles from ever re-entering it, I see castration as a better option than the slap on the wrist prison sentence and "counseling" they usually receive.
A slight side effect is they take all (and I mean ALL) the starch out of your noodle.
I'd be safe in a harem.
So chemically castrated I am, to avoid the terrible pain of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
--Boris (non-pedophile, BTW)
So get a rope.
But you're (I gather)not psychologically screwed up with a need to prey on other people in a manner manifested in a sexual fashion either.
Death penalty saves lives. And time. And taxpayer expense.
If the cut is done between the shoulders and head, it will work 100% of the time.
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