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14 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 1 (2004-2005)
Of Penology and Perversity: The Use of Penile Plethysmography on Convicted Child Sex Offenders

handle is hein.journals/tempcr14 and id is 7 raw text is: OF PENOLOGY AND PERVERSITY: THE USE OF PENILE PLETHYSMOGRAPHY ON CONVICTED CHILD SEX OFFENDERS by JASON R. ODESHOO* INTRODUCTION Tell me how you seek and I will tell you what you are seeking. -Wittgenstein' If there is any aspect of our lives that most of us wish to keep private, it is our sexual fantasies and desires. The logic of sexual arousal is notoriously difficult to understand, and individuals often find themselves acutely embarrassed, puzzled- even disturbed-by the sorts of things they find sexually exciting.2 Indeed, many people find it difficult to reveal their sexual predilections even to those with whom they are most intimate. It would therefore seem to go without saying that the government has no business intruding into citizens' sexual fantasies and desires. Yet matters may seem different where the desires and fantasies in question belong to a person accused or convicted of sexually abusing a child. When pedophilic desires are acted upon, the damage wrought can be devastating. Because most sex offenders are released back into the community at some point, often before fully serving their sentences,3 taking decisive measures to protect * Associate, Winston & Strawn LLP; J.D., with distinction, Stanford Law School, 2004. This article has benefited from the assistance of a great many people, a large number of whom would likely reject the article's conclusions. I especially wish to thank Dr. Mark Koetting of Sharper Future, in San Francisco, for sharing his insights about the practical administration of the penile plethysmograph. I also wish to thank Juhi Kaboski and Emily Ryo for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts of the article. Finally, a special debt of gratitude Tom Nolan, without whose guidance and encouragement this article could never have been written. The views expressed herein are mine alone. 1. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, PHILOSOPHICAL GRAMMAR 370 (Anthony Kenny trans., Rush Rhees ed., 1974). 2. A number of researchers and theorists have attempted to study the nature of sexual fantasies, and in particular the fact that individuals can often be bewildered by the things they find sexually exciting. See generally, MICHAEL J. BADER, AROUSAL: THE SECRET LOGIC OF SExuAL FANTASIES (2002) (arguing that sexual fantasies are means by which individuals cope with pathogenic beliefs); ROBERT J. STOLLER, OBSERVING THE EROTIC IMAGINATION (1985) (arguing that erotic excitement for all individuals involves the desire to harm the object of excitement by means of humiliation). See also Jean Laplanch & Jean-Betrand Pontalis, Fantasy and the Origins of Sexuality, in FORMATIONS OF FANTASY, at 5 (Victor Burgin et al. eds., 1986) (presenting a neo-Freudian account of the origin of sexual fantasies). The discussion that follows does not presuppose any particular explanatory framework for understanding the origin or function of sexual desires or fantasies. 3. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, for example, nearly 60% of all convicted sex offenders in 1994 were under some form of community supervision. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Offender Statistics, at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#sex (last visited April 1, 2005). Similarly. in 1990 Colorado courts sentenced 60% of all sex offenders to probation, and 4% to halfway houses. Kim English et al., Managing Adult Sex Offenders in the Community-A Containment Approach, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE 2 (1997). In 1992, states collectively paroled more than 7,300 prisoners convicted of sex offenses. Id. at 3.

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