Q&A: Exploring a N.J. psychologist's role in the dark history of
forced sterilization  Amber-Esping.JPGAmber Esping, an assistant
professor of educational psychology at Texas Christian
University, is co-author with Jonathan Plucker of
âIntelligence 101.â  Forced sterilizations bring to mind
totalitarian societies and concentration camps. But in the early
decades of the 20th century, 30 states — including New York,
Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Delaware —
had compulsory sterilization laws for people deemed mentally
unfit. It was part of the eugenics movement of the period, which
believed that intelligence and overall mental fitness were
largely hereditary.  Controlling who could reproduce was
considered a benefit for society. The unfit could include people
with low IQs, physical disabilities, teen moms, and rape and
incest victims. Anyone on the fringes of society — poor,
minority, disabled — was at risk of sterilization. A University
of Vermont study found that 60,000 men and women