Report leads to quality debate on law and order

“This morning’s Dominion Post’s excellent lead article on chemical castration for sex offender Peter Holden, is an outstanding example of how media stories on crime and justice should be written”, says Kim Workman. “Let’s have more of this kind of quality reporting on crime and justice issues in the months leading up to the election.”

“Instead of the usual simplistic ‘silver bullet’ approach, reporter Clio Francis took the trouble to interview two experts, and presented the evidence for and against chemical castration in an objective and informative way.”

“Readers would understand from the article, that chemical castration may be effective for some offenders, as part of a package of associated interventions.

A common misunderstanding about sex offenders, is that their behaviour is the result of what we commonly call “sex drive”. That may be true for some, but for others sexual offending is motivated by behavioural or emotional drivers, e.g. a desire for attention, affection or closeness. For those people, chemical castration is of little use. In the worst case scenario, some predatory sex offenders may not only continue to offend sexually after chemical castration, but their offending may increase.”

“It’s a direct contrast to recent reporting by Michael Laws on paedophiles, which was totally bereft of any research or investigation, and had the potential to seriously mislead the public.”

Quality reporting of this kind should restrain those who would like to see chemical and surgical castration introduced as a mandatory measure”

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