PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - CL Scott
AU  - T Holmberg
TI  - Castration of sex offenders: prisoners' rights versus public safety
DP  - 2003 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 502--509
VI  - 31
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/502.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/31/4/502.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law2003 Dec 01; 31
AB  - Sexual victimization of children and adults is a significant treatment and public policy problem in the United States. To address increasing concerns regarding sex offender recidivism, nine states have passed legislation since 1996 authorizing the use of either chemical or physical castration. In most statutes, a repeat offender's eligibility for probation or parole is linked to acceptance of mandated hormonal therapy. Future legal challenges to this wave of legislation will probably include arguments that such laws violate constitutional rights guaranteed to the offender by the First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. When the promise of freedom is predicated on mandated treatment, the clinician must carefully assess the validity of informed consent.