Castration to Be Studied as Option for Sex Offenders

A study into effective ways to deal with mentally disordered sex offenders, including an analysis of the “medical, moral and legal issues of using castration” to punish them, was ordered Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Pete Schabarum sought the study, but stopped short of endorsing the use of castration as punishment. At the same time, he did not condemn it.

The study, to be conducted by the county’s mental health department, also is expected to focus on more conventional methods of treating repeat sex offenders. Mental Health Director Roberto Quiroz will present a specific agenda for the study in 60 days.

The supervisors voted 4 to 0 to order the study.

Schabarum chided the news media for “going bonkers and . . . cuckoo birds over the last 12 hours” concern ing a news release issued Monday in which he had stated he wanted to eventually support “a law that will be very unpopular with these criminals--one that will take away their urge to rape women.”

Schabarum, despite repeated news media requests for elaboration on what methods he might endorse, remained silent until Tuesday’s board meeting. His aides, meanwhile, were left the task of fielding questions. They said that Schabarum had never used “the word,” as the term castration has become known in his office.

In his motion Tuesday, Schabarum also left the question of his intent open to question, even among his fellow supervisors who supported the study. “I am requesting that further information be gathered on the medical, moral and legal issues of using castration as a form of punishment for mentally disordered sex offenders,” Schabarum’s motion stated. Yet when pressed later whether he was endorsing the use of the controversial procedure, Schabarum refused to go beyond the language of the board action.

Prompting the call for the study was the sexual assault last week against a 10-year-old girl in Rosemead, which is in Schabarum’s district.

Schabarum said a recent article by news media commentator Paul Harvey referred to a low recidivism rate of sexual offenders in Norway, Sweden and Denmark where, Harvey said, castration is used as a form of punishment.

A frequently amended 1944 Swedish law permits the castration of dangerous criminals and what are described as men with abnormal or excessive sex urges. A spokeswoman at the Swedish Consulate in San Francisco said the law is still on the books, but added that she was unaware of how it has been changed.

The Danish consul in Los Angeles said he was not familiar with any laws his country has enacted on castration. Norwegian officials could not be reached for comment.

Supervisor Deane Dana, although supporting the study, said he thought “castration went out in the Middle Ages.”

Also supporting the study, but expressing doubts about the castration option, were Supervisors Ed Edelman and Kenneth Hahn. Edelman contended that most rapists have underlying hostilities and anger that would not be eliminated by castration.

Indeed, the child molestation conviction last year of a 69-year-old Chatsworth man raised questions about the effectiveness of castration as a deterrent for sex offenders. Alfred W. Bayley had voluntarily submitted to castration in 1946 in Pasadena as punishment for child molestation.

He pleaded guilty last April to molesting three girls between the ages of 4 and 8 and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Castration as an alternative to long prison terms has been presented as an option several times in the last decade. However, three years ago, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that castration, the surgical removal of the testicles, is a “form of mutilation” and therefore unconstitutional and ordered three convicted rapists to be resentenced because they had been given the choice of castration or 30 years in prison. Each said he was willing to be castrated.

Chemical Castration

But an Escondido man convicted of molesting a young girl was able to avoid an eight-year prison term in 1983 by agreeing to “chemical castration,” a controversial procedure involving weekly injections of the female hormone Depo-Provera.

Chemical castration has been proposed in other cases in Michigan and Texas, but a judge overturned the conviction in Michigan, and a medical center in Texas refused to treat the sex offender with the experimental drug.

Two convicted child molesters in San Diego volunteered to submit to castration in 1976 but were later ordered to serve prison terms after no physicians willing to perform the operation could be found.

Schabarum said the county could take a number of steps depending on the study’s findings, including recommendations for new state legislation. If the county acted on its own, he said, it would be limited in its legal authority to order increased punishment for offenders.