Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by JimC » Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:35 pm

Kristie wrote:
Rum wrote:Well it may to to you, but not to me. So where does that leave it in terms of reasonableness? I simply don't believe in the death sentence. It makes us less rather than more.
Less what? Less chance of another child getting hurt by a repeat offender?
With current prison sentences for a first such offence being ridiculously low on many jurisdictions, you have a point; too many of them do re-offend.

However, as others in the thread have said, longer initial sentences would address that concern.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by padraic » Fri Sep 07, 2012 4:55 am

FBM wrote:I would think that removing the source of testosterone would curb both aggression and sexual urges. Haven't done any research on it, I admit.


Yes,that is the intuitive response,but the evidence does not support that view as a general principle.

There is a LOT of information available on line*. Below I have cited only one article.
Evidence is also emerging that castration is not guaranteed to cure deviant sexual behaviour. Researchers found that one in three sex offenders who had been castrated were still able to have intercourse, partly because glands other than the testes, particularly the adrenals, provide the necessary male hormones.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/healt ... 54987.html


* I Googled "does castration cure sex offenders?"

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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:35 am

Alright, but if you check out the research that I dug up earlier in the thread, castrated offenders have a VERY low recidivism rate compared to non-castrated sex offenders. The proof is in the lack of pudding. ;)
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by Svartalf » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:39 am

But what is castrated offenders' rate of violent and odious crime?
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:53 am

Svartalf wrote:But what is castrated offenders' rate of violent and odious crime?
That would be included in the recidivism rate. That study treated violence and sexual crimes both separately and together. Still got a very low recidivism rate compared to non-castrated offenders who were released.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by Svartalf » Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:41 am

Yep, because the castration would prevent recidivism of direct sex crimes, it might make them mean and lead to assault, sexual assault, murder, various kinds of theft...
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:53 am

Svartalf wrote:Yep, because the castration would prevent recidivism of direct sex crimes, it might make them mean and lead to assault, sexual assault, murder, various kinds of theft...
But...the study didn't find that. It found the opposite of that in the majority of cases. :ddpan:
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by Svartalf » Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:05 am

did they actually check for it? (yeah, I did miss the post where it was linked to if it was)
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:07 am

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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by Blind groper » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:48 pm

I skimmed that rather long reference and found no reference to anything except sexual recidivism. In other words, they did not check for other crimes.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Sat Sep 08, 2012 2:11 am

Blind groper wrote:I skimmed that rather long reference and found no reference to anything except sexual recidivism. In other words, they did not check for other crimes.
With respect to sexual recidivism, 84 percent (n = 870) of the 1,036 castrated sex offenders had at least two convictions (numbers ranged from two to more than eight) for sexual crimes before castration. After castration, the sexual recidivism rate for the castrated persons dropped to 2.3 percent (24 of the 1,036 castrated persons reoffended at least once after surgery). This rate rose to 2.6 percent when corrected for those individuals who died—that is, a 10 percent assessment was taken of the total sample, thus reducing the sample to 932 with 24 castrated recidivists. The nature of the sexual crimes (e.g., contact, noncontact, child molestation, or rape) was not specified. Ten of the recidivists were castrated between the ages of 20 to 30, and these offenders showed a higher recidivism rate than offenders castrated at an older age. The time interval for recidivism after castration and release ranged between six weeks and 20 years. Castrated inmates who were sent to prison once or twice had a lower rate of recidivism than those castrated persons with three or more convictions. Nine of the 24 castrated persons who reoffended sexually did so five years after release. Twenty committed nonsexual offenses in addition to sexual crimes. The noncastrated sex offenders had a sexual recidivism rate of 39.1 percent (n = 268).
That would be 20/24 who reoffended, 20/1,036 of all those who were castrated. On the other hand, 24/1,036 reoffended sexually, so it seems that in this group, at least, the rate of nonsexual offenses in the castrated-and-released population was even lower than that of sexual recidivism.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by hadespussercats » Sat Sep 08, 2012 3:57 am

To the OP:
You don't need junk that works to be able to rape someone. All kinds of nasty substitutes-- even hands.

So it wouldn't fix anything. And it makes society that much more brutal, for no gain.

Unless castration actually changes the drive to do such deeds? I doubt it, though-- I think the rage of having been castrated might psychologically make up for the loss of aggression hormones.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by hadespussercats » Sat Sep 08, 2012 3:59 am

FBM wrote:
Svartalf wrote:Yep, because the castration would prevent recidivism of direct sex crimes, it might make them mean and lead to assault, sexual assault, murder, various kinds of theft...
But...the study didn't find that. It found the opposite of that in the majority of cases. :ddpan:
One study?

Yuck. Why can't we just toss them in jail?
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by FBM » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:17 am

Well, we do toss them in jail, but we can't sentence them to a life term (which really isn't life-long, anyway) until they've already repeated their offense a few times. This study shows that it not only drastically reduces their recidivism for violent sexual crimes, but also for nonsexual offenses. Incarceration alone has a recidivism rate of over 80%. Post-castration rates hover around the 2% mark. :dunno:

I know that study is long and tedious to read, but a surprisingly high number of those studied volunteered for physical castration. Something like 35~40%, iirc. And the number of those who reported being satisfied with the results of being castrated were closer to 50%. A good chunk of the others were indifferent to it. Only a minority expressed resentment. To me, this indicates that most of these people were sick, knew they were sick, wanted to be cured and were grateful after it was done. I don't think we can lump all these sex offenders into the same group as hard-core, lifetime criminals who murder, steal, etc, their way into maximum confinement.
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Re: Would you support physical castration for sex offenders?

Post by hadespussercats » Sat Sep 08, 2012 4:29 am

FBM wrote:Well, we do toss them in jail, but we can't sentence them to a life term (which really isn't life-long, anyway) until they've already repeated their offense a few times. This study shows that it not only drastically reduces their recidivism for violent sexual crimes, but also for nonsexual offenses. Incarceration alone has a recidivism rate of over 80%. Post-castration rates hover around the 2% mark. :dunno:

I know that study is long and tedious to read, but a surprisingly high number of those studied volunteered for physical castration. Something like 35~40%, iirc. And the number of those who reported being satisfied with the results of being castrated were closer to 50%. A good chunk of the others were indifferent to it. Only a minority expressed resentment. To me, this indicates that most of these people were sick, knew they were sick, wanted to be cured and were grateful after it was done. I don't think we can lump all these sex offenders into the same group as hard-core, lifetime criminals who murder, steal, etc, their way into maximum confinement.
I've heard many pedos feel they can't stop themselves, that pursuing children is a compulsion, and that they'd like to free themselves any way they could-- by castration, if necessary.

If that's the case, it could be a wise use of state resources to pay for the operation. And counselling.

But castration as a punitive measure seems barbaric to me. I'd rather not be complicit in perpetrating those acts, lowering myself to the level of those brutes, by being a member of a society that value vengeance over non-violent means of controlling the populace.

Maybe sentencing needs to change.
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