The large headline claiming that a fifteen year old girl sold her seven year old sister for sex at a Trenton, New Jersey party last month certainly attracted attention. But the actual facts are much muddier and we may never know what happened. Besides the sister two men and three juveniles were arrested. Apparently much of the information that we have heard comes from the police interrogation of the two youngest juveniles who are 13 and 14 years old. Both of them have learning disabilities. One is illiterate. Those who have listened to the tapes of the interviews say the police used leading questions and promised the boys that they would be released if they cooperated. At times the polices put words in the boys’ mouths and pushed the kids into implicating particular people.

The thirteen year old cried throughout the interrogation and continually asked for his mother. At one point in the interview he said: “I should just make up a story to get it over with.”

The interview with the seven year old is not much more helpful. She apparently walked into a room and watched her sister having consensual sex for money. Then her statement parroted her sister’s statement.

We may never know the whole truth although the results of DNA tests should clarify the situation to some degree.

Catherine Miller plead guilty in Federal Court to crossing state lines to have sex with a minor. The presentence report recommended a within guidelines sentence of between 70 and 87 months. However the court sentenced her to 120 months.

The Sentencing Guidelines as originally passed were considered mandatory and judges had only a limited ability to deviate from them. But in United States v. Booker the Supreme Court found the guidelines to be advisory. While the courts have the ability to deviate from the Guideline deviations are limited and must be reasonable.

At sentencing and on appeal Miller objected to the courts adoption of the Probation Department’s recommendation that that the sentencing guidelines be enhanced by an undue influence enhancement. However such enhancement, while subject to rebuttal are required in cases where there is an age difference of over ten years. Neither the trial court not the Seventh Circuit found that the enhancement had been rebutted despite some evidence that the juvenile had prior sexual experiences and seemed open to a romantic relationship with Miller.

The second issue on appeal was the government’s use of surprize evidence at the sentencing hearing. Specifically, the government introduced photo albums showing Miller with other minors. When Miller’s attorney objected, the court gave him a five minute recess to talk to his client. He said thank you and did not further object. Therefore the appellate court found that Miller waived any objection on appeal.

The final issue was the fifty percent upward deviation from the guidelines. The trial court based its decision on the high rate of recidivism among sex offenders. The appellate court rejected the finding and returned the case to the trial court for resentencing. First it found that if there is a high rate of recidivism it applies to all people charged with the crime and the Sentencing Commission would have taken this into consideration in writing the guidelines. Second it found there was no evidence at the sentencing hearing that supported a belief in a high rate of recidivism and there is evidence to the contrary. Therefore it reversed the sentence.

The Lower house of Poland’s Parliament approved mandatory chemical castration upon release from prison for anyone convicted of raping a child under 15 or a close relative. Passage by the upper house of the Parliament is expected.

Mandatory castration has been a major goal of Prime Minister David Tusk who calls pedophiles, “degenerates.” When the issue of human rights is raised he says that he does not believe “one can use the term ‘human’ for such individuals, such creatures. Therefore I don’t think protection of human rights should refer to these kind of events,”

The advantage to chemical castration over physical castration is that it is not permanent and it can be reversed. But it is not 100 per cent effective and it does not work with everyone. It is not mandatory in any other EU nation, although voluntary programs exist in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Denmark, as well as Canada. At least nine state in the United States use chemical castration often only for repeat offenders. These states include California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The current push for mandatory castration legislation in Poland was initiated by the discovery of Joseph Frizl who is accused of having two children by his young daughter,