Castrating Pedophiles

[Sophus]

I believe Poland is going to do this. Should we do it? America seems to be very much in favor of this idea. Honestly I think if you're going to do it to them you might as well do it to anyone who has raped someone.

[Will]

Castration? Absolutely, positively no. I do not believe in any permanent punishment because no justice system in existence is infallible. That being said, a vasectomy might be an interesting method of punishing those found guilty of the most heinous of sexual crimes. Unfortunately, though, a vasectomy does not render one unable to be sexually aroused, so I'm not sure that would have the desired result.

Honestly, I think those guilty of such sexual crimes shouldn't be given odd punishments but rather should be placed in a heavy therapy program (while in prison), in an attempt to try and delve into the genesis of the sexual perversion. If that core sickness can be found, it's possible the individual can be, if not cured, less of a danger.

[Whitney]

Don't we already have something related to voluntary chemical castration that they are sometimes given the option to choose instead of other punishments?  From my understanding, if the pills are not taken all the working parts go back to normmal.  Or, maybe I watch too many crime shows.

I don't think any physical and permanent castration should be done because the justice system is not always just and innocent people could get harmed.

[SallyMutant]

Nahh. Even if they are priests and preachers.

[karadan]

Don't we already have something related to voluntary chemical castration that they are sometimes given the option to choose instead of other punishments?  From my understanding, if the pills are not taken all the working parts go back to normmal.  Or, maybe I watch too many crime shows.

I don't think any physical and permanent castration should be done because the justice system is not always just and innocent people could get harmed.

Yes, they do that and it does work.

I agree with all of what Will said too.

[SSY]

Whoever voted yes, I hope they have a real good layer, just incase they ever get accused of something they didn't do.

I fail to see the difference between this and cutting the hands off of repeat offending theives.

[joeactor]

I voted "no", but for (possibly) different reasons.

1) I'm not sure that castration would prevent a pedophile from harming anyone else.

2) Sometimes the law is wrong.

I've got another beef, but it'd be threadjacking, so maybe I'll start a new one...

Mysterious,
JoeActor

[Kylyssa]

Nope.  It wouldn't do a bit of good.  It wouldn't prevent recidivism and it wouldn't help the victims in any way.

A pedophile's problem is in his head, not his testicles.  Also, sometimes pedophiles are women - how would one castrate a woman?

[Twiddler]

No, it'd be ridiculous.  I'm not very enthusiastic about defending pedophiles but at some point you have to draw the line.

[curiosityandthecat]

How about the distinction between physical castration and chemical castration? I know there's been a number of chemical castrations, like Whitney mentioned.

Then again, Kylyssa has a good point (as usual).

[pedricero matao]

A pedophile's problem is in his head, not his testicles.

Good point. I'm not into psychology, but maybe (and i think it's not very stupid to say it) pedophilia has little or nothing to do with sex. I mean, it's not just that "you like kids", damit, i find hot almost 80% of the women around here, and i'm not raping them! I think it has to do more with POWER than with sex. The same as rape, should it be stupid to say that those people do that because they want to dominate another person's will?
The other part of me just thinks about having a nice head-kicking session with them though  

Plus there are other forms of sexual abuse that don't need a fully functional genitalia and wouldn't be prevented in that way, as some of you stated before.
And of course the same argument against death penalty, what if it is proved that the criminal was inocent...

[Sophus]

I think it does seem a little barbaric and odd. I wonder how the results would differ if this poll was on a religious thread?  

I think it has to do more with POWER than with sex.

In some cases, I suppose this is true. But I don't think power is really what it's about at all for most.

[oldschooldoc]

I will have to admit I voted yes, but then realized it was a vote of heated passion because I really despise pedophiles. But, upon further review of everyone's comments and time to think it through, I agree with everyone. Justice systems aren't infallible. I also have to consider strongly what joeactor said. Just because we remove the weapon doesn't mean they won't harm anybody again.

[VanReal]

The chemical castration that they most use now is a shot of Depo (a birth control for women) administered in a clinic to ensure treatment is being followed.  Unfortunately the criminal justice system doesn't off this much anymore because although the penis will not function it does nothing to remove the inner sexual desire and children can still be molested, just with objects or body parts other than the penis.  Very few professionals believe there is any way to correct this kind of thinking, and most admit that pedophiles and serial sex offenders are not a bunch that can be rehabilitated.  So, physically removing the testes would not help the problem and could potentially cause a bigger problem as these guys would need to be more creative in satisfying that need.

Short answer, NO.

[curiosityandthecat]

The chemical castration that they most use now is a shot of Depo (a birth control for women) administered in a clinic to ensure treatment is being followed.

I learned something today.