Chemical Castration for Sexual Offenders: Should All Rapists and Child Sex Offenders Be Chemically Castrated?

Chemical Castration for Sexual Offenders: Should All Rapists and Child Sex Offenders Be Chemically Castrated? Sex offending is often not about sex at all, but about violence and domination.

Chemical Castration For Sexual Offenders

Should All Rapists and Child Sex Offenders Be Chemically Castrated?

Yes i think

so agree? or happy for these types to get out jail and do it again again again

There are reports today that more than 100 sex offenders at Whatton prison have undergone chemical treatment to suppress their testosterone levels. Does this reduce reoffending? Polly Curtis, with your help, finds out.

In the past, physical castration was adopted to punish sex offenders and prevent the recurrence of sexual crimes. However, it was abrogated because of human right issues and the irreversibility of fertility. Chemical castration of depot injection with hormones was introduced as an alternative method of physical castration. Antiandrogen is the most frequently used hormonal agents. Although there are several positive results such as changes of sexual behaviors and decrease of the recurrence rate of sexual crime after hormonal treatment, it also has serious limitations; difficulties in academic evaluation for control group and placebo effect; difficulties in the assessment of the therapeutic effect; and difficulties to decide the proper duration of treatment.

One of the most important things, if we want to reduce violence and abuse, is for a perpetrator to take responsibility for what they have done. The issue is not only that someone feels an urge to do something but that they realise that it is wrong and take steps to control or curb their behaviour. If volunteering to take drugs is helpful, and there appears to be evidence to suggest that it is, than we would welcome this as part of a range of interventions. However, drugs that control testosterone, will not change attitudes that condone violence and abuse.

There is no single thing that causes sexual violence and there is no single cure. If we are serious about reducing sexual abuse and violence we need to combine a range of strategies including widespread prevention work so that everyone knows what a healthy relationship is and how notions of masculinity can be damaging for men as well as women, boys as well as girls. This should be backed up by intensive sex offender treatment through rehabilitation programmes in prison, effective criminal justice responses including police and public protection on release and of course well-resourced victim support services.

Sex offending is often not about sex at all, but about violence and domination. The drugs used will not affect those attitudes. Some men may inflict other types of deviant behaviour on victims if they are unable to perform sexually due to the drugs. The physical impact of the drugs can be very powerful, with the effect being similar to a sex change.

Should we be refusing it if an individual has capacity, has been on medication and knows side effects? Even though it’s a not a good decision if they have the capacity to make the decision should we be denying it? I think that’s something to think about.

So, Should All Rapists and Child Sex Offenders Be Chemically Castrated?