In the wake of the news of any sex crime that comes to light, the question – what would be the proportional punishment for such an offence be ““ springs up. And, to the utter dismay and, in some cases even shock, the importance given to the argument of “˜humane”™ punishment for the perpetrator gets more attention than needed. It is time that we as a civil society not only stand up but also think of a law that addresses the issue at hand and doesn”™t “˜award”™ undue importance to the criminal.
In many developed countries across the world the provision for chemical castrations of sex criminals has now come to be seen as a proportional punishment. Being an attack on the sex organs of the victim, chemical castration is castration via drugs and works by reducing libido and sexual activity. As most sex offenders state that their crimes are a result of a disease that they are not able to control, chemical castration is a fair way to treat repeat sex criminals who want to return to normal society. Moreover unlike surgical castration chemical castration is a reversible procedure.
For the law, the crucial concern for a safer humane future must exist alongside the essential need to protect human right and dignity. Sex is an act oriented toward the future, and sex crimes are a violation of the human right to face the future with dignity. Rape, in particular, is often the violation of a woman’s rights and self-respect. Nobody has the right to act or think of abuse of a persona”™s body to meet the need of one”™s self.Sex crimes imperil the society”™s very future and socio-biologists have advanced theories arguing that rapists carry hereditary material into the next generation through their heinous act.An overhauling of the societal mindset towards such crimes is an essential but at the same time a separate leg of redressal in the form of a strong and effective law must exist once a person is within the criminal justice system.
Here”™s a list of countries that use chemical castration to sentence people convicted of sexual crimes namely rapists and pedophiles–
 United States– California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Wisconsin
Europe– Germany, Portugal, Poland, UK, Moldova, Estonia, Israel, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia
Some have questioned the efficacy of chemical castration stating that the “research is so weak that, were the treatment not so plausible it would have to be regarded as empirically unsupported“ and some and argued that it works only when the offender voluntarily submits. Some quarters have raised the question of how ethical punitive medical measures such as chemical castration really is. But if one were to look at the dictum of “Culpaepoenae par esto”or “˜Let the punishment fit the crime”™ then there is no other method that fits better. Chemical castration stops the act of rape directly! Also, this single method has the ability to balance the law where both ends of the argument ““ justice for the victim and correct rehabilitation for the perpetrator ““are met as it is not a surgical removal of the rapist”™s organ but a check on his libido that hampers him as well as the society.
If not surgical castration then in the very least chemical castration seems to be the need of the hour to safeguard children, women, men & society at large!
Don”™t we owe our children a safer world?
Amrita Bhinder
