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Chelmical Castration

This paper is an argument in favor of the use of chemical castration as a means of dealing with male sex offenders, especially pedophiles. Since the early 1980s, scientists and the courts have experimented with a method of inhibiting the testosterone levels of convicted rapists, using injections of medroxyprogesterone acetate, commonly known as Depo-Provera. Developed for women to control excessive menstrual bleeding and regulate contraception, Depo-Provera has been used in men to reduce aggressive tendencies and repress the sex drive. Although a controversial technique, this form of treatment is reversible, unlike physical castration, and some courts have been willing to consider it as an option in repeat cases; California became the first state in the nation to mandate this treatment as a condition of parole for repeat child molesters. This paper argues for such legislation to become a national program, as a means of dealing with a grave and ongoing problem.

Late in 1983, a judge in South Carolina made national headlines when he offered a controversial option to three rapists who had pled guilty to a particularly brutal crime. The three had thrown themselves on the mercy of the court, in hope that their status as first-time offenders would gain them leniency. Instead, the judge sentenced each to the maximum 30 year term.

He offered them one alternative, however. He declared that, if each would agree to being physically castrated, he would allow them to go on probation instead of being incarcerated. Human rights groups, as well as many others throughout the legal system, were appalled. Calling the ruling inhuman and barbaric, they echoed the mixed reactions that rape as a crime often stirs.

In recent decades, with the rise of the women's movement, society's attitude toward and understanding of rape has undergone a dramatic change. Rape was once considered to be primarily a sexual act, one which was not spoken of...

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Chelmical Castration. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:00, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709044.html