Chemical Castration

Suggestions for CJI Justice Verma

CJI Justice Verma heads the committee seeking suggestions for possible amendments to criminal law for those accused of sexual assault of extreme nature against women. 

For those who would like to send in their recommendations, please email Justice Verma - justice.verma@nic.in or Fax at 011.23092675

Please find my suggestion for chemical castration of those convicted of rape. This suggestion had been made nearly 2 years back by Sessions Judge Kamani Lau.

 “It is time that we as a civil society stand up and also think of a law similar to the one existing in many developed countries providing for surgical and chemical castrations”.

Castration is a proportional punishment for sex crimes, which are themselves an attack on the sex organs of the victim.

Countries using Chemical Castration to sentence people convicted of sexual crimes (namely; rapists and pedophiles):

United States

·       California[1]

·       Florida[2]

·       Georgia 

·       Iowa[3]

·       Louisiana[4] 

·       Montana 

·       Oregon, 

·       Texas and

·       Wisconsin^[5] 

Europe[5]

·       Germany[6]

·       Portugal[7]

·       Poland[8]

·       UK[9]

·       Moldova[10]

·       Estonia[11];

·       Israel[12]

·       Australia[13]

·       Argentina[14]

·       New Zealand[15]

·       South Korea[16]

·       Russia[17]

I am mouthing the opinions of many that castration is a proportional punishment for sex crimes, which are themselves an attack on the sex organs of the victim.

Since many sex offenders contend that their crimes are the result of a disease that they cannot control, I do believe that chemical castration is a fair way to treat repeat sex offenders that want to return to normal society.

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.

An overhauling of the societal mindset towards such crimes is an essential yet a separate leg for once the person is within the criminal justice system, the law must provide its own end. Alongside the essential need to protect human right and dignity, stands the crucial concern for a safer humane future.

Sex crimes imperil society's very future. Socio-biologists have advanced theories arguing that rapists carry hereditary material into the next generation through their heinous act.

Castration stops this directly.

To balance the law where both ends, justice for the victim and rehabilitation for the perpetrator, chemical castration meets the objective for 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.

Finally, castration is a proportional punishment for sex crimes, which are themselves an attack on the sex organs of the victim.

From

Name: Amrita Bhinder, Lawyer

Email: amritabhinder@gmail.com

[1] The first U.S. state to specify the use of chemical castration as a punishment for child molestation, following the passage of a modification to Section 645 of the California penal code in 1996.^[13][14] .This law stipulates that anyone convicted of child molestation with a minor under 13 years of age may be treated with Depo Provera (Chemical Castration) if they are on parole and it is their second offense and that offenders may not reject the treatment.^{[13][14][15][16]}

[2] As in California, treatment is mandatory after a second offense

[3] In Iowa, as in California and Florida, offenders may be sentenced to chemical castration in all cases involving serious sex offenses.

[4] On June 25, 2008, following a Supreme Court ruling (Kennedy Vs. Louisiana) that the execution of child rapists where the victim was not killed was unconstitutional,^[18] Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 144, allowing Louisiana judges to sentence convicted rapists to chemical castration.^[4][19][20]

[5] The drug cyproterone acetate has been commonly used for chemical castration throughout Europe. It is similar to the drug MPA used in America.^[5]

[6] In the 1960s, German physicians used antiandrogens as a treatment for sexual paraphilia.^[5]

[7] In 2008, an experimental intervention program was launched in Portugal, covering three prisons, in Carregueira (Belas, Sintra), Paços de Ferreira and Funchal. The program also included a rehabilitation component.^[26]

[8] On September 25, 2009, Poland passed legislation for forcible chemical castration of child molesters.^[27] This law came into effect on June 9, 2010, so in Poland "anyone guilty of raping a child under the age of 15 can now be forced to submit to chemical and psychological therapy to reduce sex drive at the end of a prison term".^[28]

[9] On April 30, 2010, a man in the United Kingdom found guilty of attempting to murder a 60-year-old woman in order to abduct and rape her two granddaughters, agreed to undergo chemical castration as part of the terms of his sentence.^[29]

[10] On March 6, 2012, Moldova passed legislation for forcible chemical castration of child molesters. The law came into effect on July 1, 2012.^[30]

[11] On June 5, 2012, Estonia passed a law to allow forced chemical castration of sex offenders.^[31]

[12] In May 2009, two brothers from Haifa, convicted child molesters, agreed to undergo chemical castration to avoid committing further crimes.^[32]

[13] In 2010, a repeat child sex offender who had been subject to chemical castration inappropriately touched and kissed a young girl. He was found not guilty by a jury, which was not informed of the context of his previous offences.^[33]

[14] In March 2010, Mendoza, a province in Argentina, approved a new law which allows rapists to voluntarily undergo chemical castration therapy in return for reduced sentences.^[34]

[15] In New Zealand, the antilibidinal drug cyproterone acetate is sold under the name Androcur. In November 2000 convicted paedophile Robert Jason Dittmer attacked a victim while on the drug. In 2009 a study into the effectiveness of the drug by Dr David Wales for the Corrections Department found that no research had been conducted in New Zealand into the effectiveness and such trials were ethically and practically very difficult to carry out.^[35]

[16] In July 2011, South Korea enacted a law allowing judges the power to sentence sex offenders who have attacked children under the age of 16 to chemical castration.^[36] On May 23, 2012, a repeat sexual offender known only as Park was sentenced to this treatment after his most recent attempted offence.

[17] In October 2011, Russia parliament approved a law allowing chemical castration for those convicted sex offenders who have attacked children under the age of 14, as decided through a court-requested forensic psychiatrist.^[37]