Va. Senator Seeks to Castrate Sex Offenders

[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.