Castration

Should Chemical Castration be performed on Sex Offenders?

Okay suppose your five-year-old daughter was brutally attacked and raped by a known sex offender, would you rather the offender to be sentenced to a few years in prison, only to get out and destroy another innocent victim's life or have them chemically castrated? Chemical castration is the process of injecting male sex offenders' female hormones to eliminate their sex drive. Honestly until someone is in the position; how can they say that it should or should not be performed on these offenders.

Growing up there was a family up the road that we all considered a little strange and even scared to go around. When we became adults the oldest son and his wife was arrested and charged with over ten counts of molestation of a juvenile and aggravated rape of a juvenile. The children next door to them and their own children were the victims. It is suspected that the father of this family and the other son was also involved but this was never proven. The couple only served a few years in prison the wife was released first and the husband a couple years later. Although, there has not been any other charges filed against the couple to knowledge there has been many times that their house has been passed and seen several children on their porch. It always sends chills down my spine; even though I do not know anything for sure, I suspect the abuse continues. My personal opinion is that castration is perfect for offenders of this nature.

According to www.csum.edu, sex offenders are among the highest reoccurring offenders in the United States. These types of criminals pose a threat to society and mostly to the people that live in the same neighborhood that they move into after being released from prison. When these offenders are given female hormones the rates of recurrence

decreases to five percent. This is because of the reduction of testosterone levels, therefore decreases the sexual desires of these offenders. According to Andrew Humpherson, offenders who molest children are nearly impossible to rehabilitate. He also says that if these offenders where chemically castrated it would reduce the urge to molest children. The offenders who have been released on parole, as a discount on his maximum jail sentence, should be required to have chemical castration performed as a condition of the parole. These offenders pose a large threat to society and something should be done to prevent this from happening again.

According to Justice Minister John Hatzistergos, "Chemical castrations is nonsense and does not work properly because it only treats the physical urge". However, for 94.7% of treated heterosexuals to have no repeat offenses in 17 years is substantial. An article in the Crime Times a study in Germany compared 99 surgically castrated individuals and 35 non-castrated individuals for 10 years after release. The recidivism rate for the castrated men was 3% compared to 46% non-castrated men. These are VERY substantial numbers and even though surgical castration is more severe the end results for chemical vs. surgical are very similar, and a very good argument can be made for the humanity of chemical castration. The researchers report that all of their subjects showed marked reductions in outward- directed anger during the experiment, while half exhibited reductions in anxiety and sexual desire. This suggests, they say, "Measures of outward-directed anger are most sensitive to small reductions in circulating testosterone concentrations." In some states, prisoners have begged the states to chemically castrate them with the states actually refusing. In Texas, Larry Don McQuay begged the state to give him the drug stating that he had molested some 200 children and would do it again if he were released. Johns Hopkins University found a recidivism rate of 65% for non-treated felons, this number fell below 15% with treatment. The numbers go on and on of amazing drops in the recidivism rates, none were inconclusive or minor changes. To the parents of the victims to be this is meaningful, life changing. Studies also show that there is a strong correlation between adult molesters and their