Va. Senator Seeks to Castrate Sex Offenders

[Gerald]

RICHMOND, Va. -- A Virginia legislator is proposing castrating sex offenders as an alternative to the increasing costs to detain and treat them after they've served their prison sentences.

Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger's bill would require the state to study the use of physical castration as an alternative to civil commitment for sexually violent predators. A similar proposal was vetoed four years ago.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011...sex-offenders/


Note: Published January 26, 2011

[VipertheSniper]

Not that I like sexual predators, but this is just

[Oberon]

Sounds fair enough to me.

[Skybird]

In a time when pedophile perverts are allowed to publish guides about how to approach children without raising suspicion (Germany, some years ago), it must sound like an "inhumane" idea. However, sexual abberations like this cannot be treated in therapy, the psychological roots anchor too deep in early years of a person's life, and puberty. Chemically you sometimes can achieve some kind of containing effect, but that depends on the cooperation and good willingness of the subject, and alwysy includes the risk of abuse by the subject to create a backdoor through which to slip out.

On non-pedophile, non-alcoholised rapists, I think the simple act of rape demonstrates a certain attitude that frees us from the demand of respecting the offender, and it shows that the offender is invulnerable to learning the evil in what he did.

In these cases I am for castration indeed. If chemically possible with unlimited effect (only one injection per life), then this way, else by surgery.

The interests of victims weigh heavier than the interests of offenders. They are not to be weighted equally. In case of psychological distorted people it may even give them a freedom from their destructive drives that before they had not known, seeing their lives being totally dominated by fighting their fantasies, drives and desires all day long. That's why occasionally people like this are asking for chemical castrations, becaaeu they suffer from them selves and know they are a threat to the public, they suffer from their own nature and are not happy with themselves at all. Mind you: I speak of some offenders here, not of all - many are just this: pervert bastards that simply must be seen as criminals in the first.

[Gammelpreusse]

If people are voluntarily willing to have a castration, I am all for it. It's their decision.

If not, the case is different. Though I agree that the right of the potential victim always comes before the right of the offender, there are several options to consider first.

A lot of people simply need therapy. The success rate of those is fairly high. And it makes sense to get a productive member back into society, it saves money, if successfully reintegrated into society with these ppl paying taxes it actually provides money, it frees people up in the law department to take care of more dangerous cases and lowers the number of prison places required.

I agree this concept is not overly satisfying for a potential victim, but here I am actually with good old Jesus...everybody at least deserves a chance to make good of what they did. Mere revenge simply costs too much in monetary terms. And contrary to popular believe, most people who committing a crime, even rape, do regret it later on. The chance at least must be kept and there are numerous examples of this concept working out.

Then there there are those highly dangerous individuals who are indeed a danger to society, who indeed could be considered evil and will stay this way no matter what. Nothing can be done about that, especially when sickness comes together with mental degeneration. However, I am still against methods like forced castration not because these people deserve any better, but imho, because a state should never, ever have the power to intentionally harm another person without his/her consent, no matter in what spirit. The margin of error or abuse is simply too low and too dependent on current fashion and it is not the task of a state to please petty instincts like revenge. The state just has to make sure the rest of society is protected from these people.

Instead life long prison/custody/surveillance is warranted here.

[Takeda Shingen]

I have some ambivalence toward the matter. One one hand, my visceral reaction is joy at the prospect of something bad happening to sex offenders. Rationally, I feel that if we are to use this type of punishment, we might as well return to the days when theives would have a hand cut off, and wonder in fact if we are returning to a state of selective barbarism.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Gammelpreusse

A lot of people simply need therapy. The success rate of those is fairly high.

As an ex-pro, I must tell you that we learned it differently. It'S worse than with alcoholics, especially in case of pedophiles. You cannot treat or heal pedophilia. At best you can acchieve a certain degree of containment of the abbarated sexual drive - with a high rate of failures tzo acchieve that, and all pedophiles always remanming under high inner pressure.

There is no real therapy for healing, and there is no real therapy to guarantee a to-be-demanded minimum of security. The rate of people falling back into old patterns after having run therapies, is very high.

Vertrauen ist gut, but in this case Kontrolle ist nicht nur besser, but mandatory because: necessary. Like in drug therapy in hospitals and stationary treatement you also do not leave it to trusting them, but you control them. It is necessary.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

I have some ambivalence toward the matter. One one hand, my visceral reaction is joy at the prospect of something bad happening to sex offenders. Rationally, I feel that if we are to use this type of punishment, we might as well return to the days when theives would have a hand cut off, and wonder in fact if we are returning to a state of selective barbarism.

I do not think of it in terms of a punishement, like I do not consider death penalty as a punishement either (and have repeatedly argued so).

It is about prevention with other options failing or offering a blatant dysbalance between costs and results, and "ultimate prevention by final measurement" (castration, execution) in case of severe and grave danger to the public. And that criterion does not match for every case you deal with.

[the_tyrant]

On the bright side, we now have real Castrato singing opera

still, i have a feeling that pedophiles will end up as a regulated accepted fetish with all this political correctness going on

[NeonSamurai]

My major concern is what about false conviction? Those do certainly happen, and more often then we tend to want to admit. Particularly in pedophile cases as children are incredibly unreliable witnesses, and have made false accusations in the past.

Sky is also correct, the rate of success with treatment is low, particularly dealing with therapy and psychopathic individuals (which many predatory sex offenders would fall under). Pedophilia is also not treatable either as the brains of these people are wired to be sexually aroused by children. There has been some success with drugs that suppress sexual desire and pedophiles, but it has its own problem.

[Gammelpreusse]

Originally Posted by Skybird

As an ex-pro, I must tell you that we learned it differently. It'S worse than with alcoholics, especially in case of pedophiles. You cannot treat or heal pedophilia.

No, you can not heal it, the same way you can't heal men of digging women or homosexuals digging their own gender, or all those fetishists digging their fetishes. But you can learn to control it. Pedophilia does not work much different then other drives, sometimes stronger, sometimes less strong. Sometimes they fall for these instincts, sometimes they don't, besides them being there. I dig women, I consider them hot. Does not mean I go out raping them on a regular basis. And even rapists are not serial offenders most of the time or do it again after having served their punishment, exceptions proving the rule. Same with pedophilia, really.

The big problem in this is to determine who is in danger of doing it again and who is not. That question has no satisfying answer so far and led to more victims, a tragedy that can't be repeated.

But going the easy route and starting to castrate people is not a solution worthy of a modern country, but fits into a medieval society. If you are not sure lock them up.

[danlisa]

Is this a deterrent or a solution?

[STEED]

Originally Posted by danlisa

Is this a deterrent or a solution?

Both, it will be a deterrent only too a few, as for the rest well you know. As for the solution that will stop those who have been caught performing the act again.

Interesting note here, some child abusers here when there sentence is finish do not want to come out of prison as they do not trust themselves as they know there is a good chance there do it again.

[Feuer Frei!]

There is no proven effective "cure" for pedophiles, which means that chemical castration has no value for these criminals.
Chemical castration may lower the sex drive, but it's not clear that it will erase motivations for sex crimes.
I have other notions for these so-called people who commit these abhorrant crimes, in particulat paedophilia, but these are not appropriate to be posted here.

[danlisa]

The proposal is rather small minded.

Are sex offenses only performed by offenders getting their wang out?