Castration: Is Justice A Cut Away?

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“He asked a jail guard for a razor. He told the guard he wanted to look nice and clean-shaven for his court hearing the next day. The guard hesitated but handed Jenkins the blade. Jenkins walked to the shower in his cell. He bit the blade out of its plastic casing and stuffed an apple in his mouth to muffle his screams. Then he castrated himself and flushed his testicles down the jail cell toilet. (The Washington Post 1).” In recent years, this story of James Jenkins has stirred up controversy regarding whether or not castration is an acceptable cure and/or punishment for sex offenders. To many, it is believed to reduce sexual urges as well as reduce the cost for treatment centers. However, to others it is a violation to our Eight Amendment, no cruel or unusual punishment, and will not prevent future sex offenders from committing these crimes. The options of punishment and treatment of our justice system has changed dramatically due to science and technology advances. While our justice system has proven to provide the necessary treatment and punishment for sex offenders, more and more victims and offenders are finding that castration is not only cost friendly, but a clever solution to the war on sex crimes.
In chemical castration, drugs are administered to lower the testosterone level, which in result reduces sexual urges. In surgical castration, the testes are removed through an incision in the scrotum. On September 18, 1996, California became the first state to authorize the use of either chemical or physical castration for certain sex offenders who were being released from prison into the community (Charles L. Scott, MD, and Trent Holmberg, MD). One point in question whether castration is effective is that those who sex offend ...

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...h, to the democratic mind, are odious. We prefer a meaningless collective guilt to a meaningful individual responsibility.”

Works Cited

Charles Scott and Trent Holmberg, L. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jaapl.org/content/31/4/502.full.pdf
Dickson, M. (n.d.). Rape, the Most Intimate of Crimes. PBS. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.pbs.org/kued/nosafeplace/articles
Rondeaux, C. (2006, July 5). Can Castration Be a Solution for Sex Offenders?. Washington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400960
Sealey, G. (2014, March 2). Some Sex Offenders Opt for Castration. ABC News. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93947&page=1&singlePage=true
Weinberger, L., Sreenivsan, S., Garick, T., & Osran, H. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://jaapl.org/content/33/1/16.full.pdf

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