H.—3la

26

This pessimistic view, unfortunately, is fully confirmed by the records of cases examined by the Committee. Long terms of imprisonment, though combined with the lash, have proved quite ineffective as a deterrent, even to the individual concerned. In some cases the offender within a short time after his release has been detected in the same practices and rearrested. Still less does such a punishment act as a deterrent to other addicts, if for no other reason than that each individual cherishes the conviction that he will not be found out. Records of a number of illustrative cases are set out in the Appendix, pages 31-33. Section 4. —Suggested Remedies. As regards the infliction of corporal punishment which is often advocated, Dr. Murray, Medical Officer to the Mount Eden Prison at Auckland, who has had a good deal of experience with sexual offenders, said he had seen a good many flogged, and he did not think it had any effect as a deterrent. He added, " Nothing will deter men once they have taken on that line. I think you will find in some cases where a person has been addicted to those practices before marriage he will drift again into the same course after a certain number of years. It seems a perversion they have no control over, and after a certain number of years it masters them." The general opinion of those who have been in touch with this problem for many years is well expressed in the following extract from a very valuable report furnished to the Committee by Dr. F. S. Hay, Inspector-General of Mental Hospitals, on the diflerent questions coming within the scope of the inquiry :— " As a member of the Prisons Board I have had the matter of the sexual offender brought under my notice and have come to some very definite conclusions. " I think that he should be brought to trial in the ordinary way, with perhaps suppression of publication of names of the offender and victim. If found guilty, he should be given an indeterminate sentence, and be removed to a farm reformatory prison, where he would be brought under skilled medical and lay observation, and his case studied in respect to —Mentality, when if afterwards it is decided that he is mentally defective or deficient in terms of the Act he can be transferred to the proper institution ; physical condition, when if there is any disorder it can be remedied. If the disorder is causative {e.g., prostatic in the elderly) and surgical or medical interference is necessary, it will be carried out and its results carefully watched and reported on. " At present the sentences vary from, say, a year to ten years or more, the seriousness of the case being one determining factor ; but often similar cases have years of difference in their sentences, and at the end of the sentence they once more enter the world, and a fair proportion repeat the offence. The people in the reformatory prisons can, with experience of a case lasting over some years, foretell the failure fairly accurately. " The degree of sexual perversion being measured by the amount of interference with children, which accounts for the measure of the sentence, means no essential difference in the intent or in the likelihood of repetition, and therefore scientifically the sentences should be equal. I suggest that they should be made equal by being made indeterminate. " Those of whom the Medical Officer cannot report favourably would continue on. They could be given a right of revision. Those of whom he can report very favourably could be released on probation, and so on. The essential feature is that, no hurried diagnosis is made before trial, but diagnosis and prognosis are arrived at after months and maybe years of close observation and by a staff gaining experience daily." Sterilization and Desexualization. The increase of sexual offences during recent years and the disgust felt by all normally disposed people when contemplating cases of sexual perversion and p.ssault upon young children have created a strong public opinion in favour of dealing with these offences as radically as circumstances will permit. Demands are constantly made that the offenders should undergo " a surgical operation," which is intended to imply either castration or simple sterilization. The British Medical Association, at their annual Conference held in Auckland in April, 1924, resolved that the following motion be adopted by the Council: " That this Conference can make no recommendation for surgical desexualization in the treatment of the adult sex pervert. The only safeguard for young children in this matter is the permanent segregation of the offender, either in prisons or in farm colonies. The Conference emphasizes the importance of the sterilization of the chronic mentally or morally unfit that a future generation may benefit thereby." The Committee therefore considers it necessary to set out as clearly as may be possible the result of such operations and its deductions from the evidence taken and authorities consulted as to the probability of the achievement of the result desired. To consider in the first place the operation of simple sterilization (vasectomy or salpingectomy). It is quite clear that this operation, when properly carried out, prevents procreation by the individual operated upon. Although the knowledge of the loss of this power may modify the views of life held by the individual the operation per se does not affect his physical or mental health. This would be anticipated, as the production of the internal secretion of the sexual glands in either sex (ovaries or testes) continues. Sexual desire and capacity for coitus are not usually appreciably impaired by this operation, and it clearly could not be expected to restrain the sexual offender from the pursuit of his perverted modes of gratification. As, however, it appears that in a proportion of cases of sexual perversion the tendency is an hereditary one, these operations would, as in the case of the feeble-minded, tend to restrict the number of individuals in the community afflicted in this ma.nner. The Committee would therefore recommend that simple sterilization be considered by the Eugenic Board in relation to sexual perverts.