Monday, January 09, 2017

Mathews v. Harris (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 9, 2017)

"Plaintiffs Mathews and Alvarez have treated numerous patients for sexual addiction, compulsivity and other sexual disorders, who admit downloading and viewing child pornography on the Internet. Based on their training and experience, plaintiffs do not believe those patients present a serious danger of engaging in “hands-on” sexual abuse or exploitation of children or the distribution of child pornography: they typically have no criminal history, have never expressed a sexual preference for children, and voluntarily participate in psychotherapy to treat their disorder, which often involves compulsive viewing of all kinds on the Internet."

Too bad.  The Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act (CANRA) makes these people mandatory reporters.  So they've got to rat out their patients.

So they'll have to lie to their doctors about what they're doing.  Good luck getting successful voluntary treatment that way.

There's no constitutional violation.  And to add injury to insult, the Court of Appeal awards costs against the plaintiff.