New Test Takes Closer Look At High-Risk Sex Offenders

[OneBlueSky]

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3621034&nav=0s3dcO5H

On September 1, a new law will go into effect that aims to better label the most dangerous sex offenders, and the method is unconventional, to say the least.

(snip)

Counselors like Siegel will know that because the offenders will be hearing rape scenes, incest scenes while sitting in a specially designed chair, and they'll see lots of images.

"They're seeing adults and children, all the way from infants up, and they're provocatively dressed," Siegel said. "The client puts midshaft on their penis, and what this does is measure the increased blood flow to the penis, which is how men show they're sexually aroused."

(snip)

Now in September, the state will start a pilot program with these tests to see their effectiveness. All sex offenders going on probation will take them and will be required to pay for them.

- more . . .

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3621034&nav=0s3dcO5H

[nine23]

1. "It moved!" (George Costanza)

Really scientific.

[sweetheart]

2. Oh why don't they just castrate them

Geez.. all this fancy gear... when a castration (removing the balls)
would serve the purpose. No more rape impulses, floods of testosterone
whispering subliminal messages, just a plain pee-hose.

Then the message would be clearer on sex crimes... "abuse it and lose it"

[wli]

6. bad idea

First, irreversible corporal punishment. Second, the impulses are not related to testosterone. Third, it's been done before (remember all the forced sterilizations done under the auspices of "psychiatry"? yes, in the US) and the repeat offenders, far from being "pacified," merely engaged in new offenses not requiring their lost physical capabilities.

It's been done before (en masse even), it doesn't work, and (surprise!) a fair amount of the time it ends up mutilating those incapable of mounting a sufficiently costly legal defense.

[sweetheart]

9. Ok, bad idea

I have to wonder at the tremendous cost we endure as a culture for
sexual perversion and violence, largely incubated by our media, one
that objectifies women and sells sex and violence as a drug for
the impotent television addicted.

How do we reform sex criminals? I accept that medical alteration has
been used, although from what i understand, not mandatory for criminal
rape, but for eugenic purposes.

Is the answer just more and more invasive society watching everything.
Perhaps we should install 360 cameras on all persons that are monitored
by police for sexual inflections. Maybe we should install transmitters
inside peoples brains that ring the police when sexual arousal happens
within 10 feet of an underaged person.

Maybe we should hang garlic and crosses on the doors of all sex criminals
and dead horse heads on the doors of all republicans. Perhaps all sex
criminals should be smeared with blood, or bar coded on their foreheads
with "sex offender".

Or, maybe we should design a new high-tech chastity belt that, like a
prison collar, does not come off, yet permits passing fluids and
solids out the body. ... or a mobile phone that can't be turned off,
with an annoying ring, that rings constantly as long as a person's
sexuality is aroused.

Or maybe they should just be denied clothing, and have to walk the
earth naked, so that everyone will see their sex parts and "know"
that they are a sex offender.

:-)

[wli]

10. as unsatisfying as it sounds

The only thing I would recommend would be incarceration. I think it should pretty much be confinement and nothing else.

The punishment should be little more than making them lonely and bored, but otherwise completely unharmed (this is clearly not how it works today).

If we care to strike out the "cruel and unusual" clause via constitutional amendment, maybe that would mean something else. But the reason for the clause would swiftly become apparent (as it already is, since the letter of the clause is not respected).

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Why not put sex offenders on Lexapro?

According to a friend (yeah... a friend, that's it ;)), Lexapro robs one of almost all sexual urges.

[wli]

8. perhaps there is a more relevant question

For instance, questioning the motives behind the mass distribution of "antidepressants" that effectively chemically castrate people who aren't sex offenders.

Anyway, if you want to see the abuse of chemical castration in action, witness Alan Turing.

[soothsayer]

4. The gov't just LOVES to create kiddy porn! They're prolly one

of the biggest purveyors of it.

[wli]

5. there are some allegations about that

I don't have a good grip on the reliability of the sources yet.

[Sgent]

7. Couple of things

First of castration/sterilization was done in psych not for purposes of sexual aggressiveness, but to prevent reproduction -- it did work according to what they were trying to do (as reprehensible as we might find that today, it used to be much more common).

I have no idea if it works, and I have no idea if this machine will work -- is there any study or is this some legislature's perverted idea?

[wli]

11. the causes for psychiatric incarceration then included sex offenses

Most notable among those, male homosexuality. Obviously they were merely made impotent (barring hormone replacement or occasional viability regardless), not deterred from homosexual sexual activity. I am not an expert, but here's what I've picked up over time from reading.

The material on sex offenses I didn't see as much of in no small part because most of what I was looking for related to psychiatric quackery in the past, and that turned up various accounts of those who were "forcibly sterilized" and similar (the largest of group of which were Holocaust survivors, but numerous thousands also existed in the US whose numbers were not determinable due to "convenient" document shredding in the face of class action lawsuits). The lack of a deterring effect specifically for sex offenses is information older than that googling session I don't have a citable source for, though I've seen or heard the claim repeated by several sources (possibly on television in addition to in print?). I've never specifically looked into the sex offense deterrent aspect.

I'm not sure which of two questions your final question is meant to ask, so here's my response to both. The notion of "castrating the queers" dates to prehistory, apparently for various purposes including feminization (c.f. Nero and Sporus), genocide (esp. Jews), and weirder things like preventing fraternization by harem guards and preserving singing voices. I've never heard of attempts at chastity belts for males or even any reliable accounts of their use for females (clearly they interfere with excretion in both cases, so there is some room for doubt).

So there's my "brain dump" on the subject.

[mongo]

12. The thought police are here

Any kind of invasive, privacy destroying, police-state action will always start with the most unpopular groups.

Where will it end? Who will be next to have to undergo screening for anti-social behavior?

[Sgent]

13. Sterileization

was probably practiced easily into the 60's -- and usually not by Psychs. I was referring to hisdirectomy's/tubel ligation and vasetomy's done commonely in MR children (as well as others), at the behest of parents with the consent/encouragement of the medical community. Most older OB's have done these, as well as many older urologists.

These were done because MR people were generally thought uncapable of raising children, and being responsible. It was also encouraged in people with severe mental illness, etc.