Post #3
Chemical castration is one of the most awkward and uncomfortable topics in the world of sex crimes. One may think that by administrating medicine designed to reduce libido and sexual activity in the hopes of preventing rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders from re-offending would stop the sex crimes surrounding the United States. Recently the Polish parliament approved forced chemical castration on pedophiles. The law will be applied to pedophiles convicted of raping a family member or a victim under the age of 15 and administered upon the convict's release from prison. The same sentence will be applicable to anyone attempting to seduce a child under 15 years of age over the internet. The legislation must still pass the senate before taking effect. (BBC).
The subject has drawn criticism from human rights activists who “consider chemical castration a human rights abuse, no matter how serious the offender in question is. We consider it to be cruel and inhumane and it’s like the death penalty,” (Collerton). Australia’s Queensland Counsel of Civil Liberties presidents Michael Cope believes that offenders should be in prison and serve their time, then be given appropriate medical rehabilitation treatment they need. Mr. Cope agrees that chemical castration “might be seen as a useful component of treatment or management for some of these very difficult cases, where we’re unlikely to see response in other methods,” (Collerton). The Australian government is making sure the offenders are not in any serious danger by performing health checks regularly.
One can argue either way on the issue of chemical castration. On one side the public needs to be protected from the offenders and the government will try everything in their power to prevent the offender from recidivism. Instead of placing an offender behind bars to add to the overcrowded population in the correctional system the government decides to let an offender experience life on the outside with one small exception: the offender has to be given doses of medicine to reduce their sex drive so they do not break their parole and re-offend. While some people argue that is “inhumane punishment” they fail to take in consideration what a victim went through while in the hands of a certain sex offender.
People are so caught up in their own world and trying to find justice that they do not look at the bigger picture. So what if an offender receives medication to prevent them from committing the same or worse crime? What harm is being done to them? Doctors make sure they are not harmed in the whole castration process. Get off your high horse and put yourself in the victims’ shoes. What happened to them cannot be replaced with medication. A victim may seek counseling or attend a support group but will always have the memory of what happened to them. There is nothing wrong with castration in order to prevent more people from being victimized by a sexual offender. Don’t stop at the chemical castration either; physically castrate them so they do not try to harm another person.
BBC. (2009, 25 September). Poland backs chemical castration.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8275236.stm
Collerton, Sarah. (2009, 21 September). Chemical castration ‘like the death penalty.’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/21/2692144.htm?section=australia
McCall, Thomas. (2009, 27 September). Poland approves forced chemical castration for pedophiles. Tallahassee Conservative Examiner.
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I agree in keeping castration to reduce recidivism among sexual offenders specially those who harm young innocent children under age 15. It will be better to do that than to over populate even more our prisons. We are building more prisons than fixing some low income public schools. Furthermore, there should be even more laws against sexual offenders. On the other hand, if castrating those offenders they might use foreign objects to harm children right? So how effective is chemical castration? It may all depend on the person and how it affects them. There are many rehabilitation programs for sexual offenders yet, the recidivism rate is high. If castration is the answer to lower the recidivism rates among sexual offenders “I say lets keep doing it”. We should not feel sorry for those people, who have harmed our children, because those children will never be the same. So if the children have to live with that the rest of their lives, the sexual offenders should live with something they will always regret doing. Through this punishment they will never forget the mistake they made.
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