Should Sex Offenders be Required To Take Medicine to Prevent Sexual Desire?

Introduction

This paper discusses should sex offenders be required to take medicine to prevent sexual desire after they leave prison or not. This procedure can also be called Chemical castration which is typically used in tandem with other treatment modalities. It may be a preferable alternative to surgical castration from the offender's perspective, and it may appeal as “just deserts” to a concerned public, but there is little reason to rely upon it as a true cure, and no reason to make it a mandatory requirement for any offender.

Sex offenders have accounted for an increasing share of the incarcerated population in the United States since the 1970s. Worldwide, research investigating effective methods of treating people convicted of sex crimes has increased dramatically. Although treatment is infrequently available in prison, many people convicted of sex offenses, as well as others without criminal convictions who suffer from sexual addictions, do include treatment in their paths to desistance.

Discussion

Castration is a medical procedure that eliminates testosterone production. Surgical castration, which is viewed unfavorably in the United States, is the removal of the testes to stop the production of sex hormones. It was often used during the eugenics movement in the early 20th century to sterilize criminals or individuals thought to be feebleminded. Today, castration is a form of punishment or serves as a treatment alternative to incarceration for sexual offenders. In chemical castration, sexual offenders are given large doses of anti-androgens, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), commonly known as Depo Provera. (Campbell 2007, 130)

The administration of the weekly injectable hormone decreases sexual desire, urges, thoughts, and almost all ability to engage in sexual activity. Although participation is voluntary, refusal to submit to treatment can result in probation revocation or a lengthy prison term. Side effects can include weight gain, impotence, lowered sperm count, nausea, hypertension, labored breathing, and so forth. Sex offenders have long been required to take medicine to prevent sexual desire as a method of punishment for criminal acts in many societies. It was frequently used in the waging of war, as a means of punishing, controlling, or subjugating a fallen enemy. In the United States, in the decades following the Civil War, castration often accompanied the lynching of black men in the South as a simultaneous punishment for and warning against miscegenation, whether real or imagined. (Flora 2009, 78)

Castration was also used as a criminal sentence in many societies. In some cases, only the testicles were removed; in others all the genitalia were excised, often condemning the victim to a painful death. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, sterilization was often used to control criminal populations and to punish or treat sex offenders. The development of vasectomy techniques (which sterilize by blocking the connection between the testicles and prostrate rather than by removing the testicles) in the nineteenth century meant that castration as such was no longer employed for treatment or punishment of criminals; the scientific nature of ...