Cesare Beccaria, a classical criminologists once said, “Punishment should be proportional to the crime (Gaines 41).” He has not been the only criminologist who has explored the cause of crime and the punishment the offender should be given based on the offense. At some point in our lives we have had experiences where it’s complicated to make the right choices. One of the cases that shows the relation of making the right choice is the case of David Wayne Jones. Mr. Jones, a 33 year old YMCA counselor was accused of sexually assaulting a five year old boy. According to Texas District & County Attorney Association, Mr. Jones was also sentenced as part of a plea deal to 15 years in prison for molesting at least 40 boys while he held his position as a YMCA counselor (Emily, 2007). Consequently, he underwent through a surgical castration in a bid to lower his prison sentence. His last action brought a notorious controversy whether castration was a sentencing option for judges and an effective way to reduce sentence for violent sex offenders, if voluntary. Based on the theories discussed in our readings, I believe that voluntary surgical castration should be an option because it reduces criminal behavior, it controls money spent on treatments and offenders lose sexual interest.
According to Charles Scott, author of the journal The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Outline, sexual victimization of children and adults is a significant treatment and public policy problem in the United States (Scott, 2003). In addition, the journal explains that in order to reduce sex offender recidivism, nine states in the United States have passed legislation authorizing surgical castration. Even though it might cause arguments in the future in t...
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.... (2008). Future Sex: Should Sex Offender be Chemically Castrated. Retrieved from Motherboard: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/future-sex-should-sex-offenders-be-chemically-castrated
Rondeaux, C. (2006, July 5). Can Castration Be a Solution for Sex Offenders? Retrieved from The Washington Post : Rondeaux, C. (2006, July 5). Can Castration Be a Solution for Sex Offenders? Retrieved from The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070400960_pf.html
Scott, C. (2003). Castration of sex offenders: prisoners' rights versus public safety. American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law., 504-509.
Ward, M. (2012, December 30). State jails struggle with lack of treatment, rehab programs. Retrieved from Statesman: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/state-jails-struggle-with-lack-of-treatment-rehab-/nTh8q/
In the event that a prisoner (particularly a sex offender) does complete rehabilitation, he carries with him a stigma upon reentering society. People often fear living near a prior drug addict or convicted murderer and the sensational media hype surrounding released felons can ruin a newly released convict’s life before it beings. What with resident notifications, media scare tactics and general concern for safety, a sex offender’s ability to readapt into society is severely hindered (554). This warrants life-skills rehabilitation applied to him useless, as he will be unable to even attempt to make the right decision regarding further crime opportunities.
Policies have proven to be counterproductive due to a multitude of fundamentally inapt bases to include: exaggerated statistical information inconsistently used; lack of protection safeguards for victims; inadequate resources on various levels; discretionary provisions that are incongruously applied; criminal conjecture; rigidity towards immigrant status in the sex trade; limited sanctions placed on traffickers; lack of fiscal resources; corruptive implications; and a complete lack of safety for children being reintegrated in the community (Vance, 2011). Ultimately, proving to complicate further the rehabilitation of children traumatized by sex
Jacoby has been with the Boston Globe since 1987 as a columnist, and has received the following awards: the Breindel Prize in 1999, and the Thomas Paine Award in 2004. Before he worked for the Boston Globe he briefly practiced law and was a commentator for WBUR-FM. Based on this information, it shows that he not only does his research on the history of flogging and how it could be beneficial, but shows that he has knowledge regarding the topic. He also, throughout the essay, explains how corporal punishment can be effective because the lack of efficiency that incarcerating criminals shows. He addresses the opposition that corporal punishment is a faster and more cost effective process but backs up his argument using information about the amount of crime committed in jails too.
Many resources go into the prevention and management of sex offenders. However, very few effective programs exist that decrease the likelihood of reoffending. Through the use of meta-analyses, Seto and Lalumiere (2010) evaluated multiple studies that examined sex offenders. Emphasis was put on etiological explanations in the hopes of identifying factors associated with sex offending. Seto and Lalumiere’s (2010) findings help in creating effective programs to decrease recidivism rates.
Vogel, Nancy. “Rehab in Prison Can Cut Cost, Report Says; Crowding Exacerbates High Recidivism Rate by Denying Inmates Useful Treatment, Experts Find.” Los Angeles Times: 0. Jun 30 2004. Proquest. Web. 24 Feb 2014
According to RAINN, (2009) approximately 10 per cent of all victims of sexual assault and abuse are adult and juvenile males. In terms of the nature of assault, real figures include a compendium of reported incidents ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration. To qualify this statement, it must be understood that the percentage does not reflect a vast number of crimes that go unreported due to issues that will be discussed in the present paper.
Criminal Law. Sex Offender Notification Statute. Alabama Strengthens Restrictions on Sex Offenders. Harvard Law Review Vol. 119, No. 3 (Jan., 2006), pp. 939-946
It is undeniable that mass incarceration devastates families, and disproportionately affects those which are poor. When examining the crimes that bring individuals into the prison system, it is clear that there is often a pre-existing pattern of hardship, addiction, or mental illness in offenders’ lives. The children of the incarcerated are then victimized by the removal of those who care for them and a system which plants more obstacles than imaginable on the path to responsible rehabilitation. Sometimes, those returned to the community are “worse off” after a period of confinement than when they entered. For county jails, the problem of cost and recidivism are exacerbated by budgetary constraints and various state mandates. Due to the inability of incarceration to satisfy long-term criminal justice objectives and the very high expenditures associated with the sanction, policy makers at various levels of government have sought to identify appropriate alternatives(Luna-Firebaugh, 2003, p.51-66).
A huge factor in the prevalence of mental health problems in United States prison and jail inmates is believed to be due to the policy of deinstitutionalization. Many of the mentally ill were treated in publicly funded hospitals up until the 1960’s. Due to budget cuts and underfunding of community mental health services we ...
Yates, P. M. (2005). Pathways to treatment of sexual offenders: Rethinking intervention. Forum on Corrections Research, 17, 1-9.
"Report: Most inmates need treatment, few get it." Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly 22.9 (2010): 4. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 30 June 2010.
In Texas, May 2012 a repeat child sex offender Craig Stephen Hoard was handed seven life sentences. Hoard was convicted of indecency in 1977 and was released for parole from prison in February 2001. Seven days later he was convicted for sex with a child. He served nine years in state prison. Three months after his release from his nine year sentence in 2010 he was arrested again. In June 2010, Police arrested Hoard, finding child porn on his computer and iPod. A video of Hoard was found of him in a restroom stall at a pizza place in Conroe instructing a five year old to expose his genitals. Judge Hamilton could not change what Hoard has done to many children in the past but she can stop Hoard from ever harming another child. Judge Hamilton sentenced Hoard to seven life sentences. District Attorney Brett Ligon is quoted saying ,“Mr. Hoard has proven that he cannot control his predatory nature.” Sex offenders betray the trust humans have for other humans. Many victims of sex offenders believe that their rights were betrayed by another human being. This leaves the victims with many emotional and physical damages they will never be able to forget. Sexual abuse violates a person’s right and trust in other humans. Physical castration is an extreme punishment that benefits both the offender and the victim in the easiest of ways. Having an extreme punishment like physical castration will help stop any other offenses from occurring. While giving the offender both a clean slate to work with and a minimized risk of reoffending, physical castration is the most effective punishment over all others and it gives the most peace of mind to victims while being the most cost efficient.
problem for the public, as potential victims, and the legal system which is entrusted by the public for protection. It would be irresponsible for the legal system to ignore the criminal class of sex offenders, for they are subject to a recurring physiological urge that requires the use of effective restraints that would curb the habitual repetition of episodes producing the harmful consequences to the public(Schopf 95). In light of this realization, steps beyond treatment have been taken to reduce the recidivism rate of sex offenders. Notification laws, special supervising techniques by parole officers, and both surgical and chemical castration are techniques used in various forms in this country and abroad with success. However, notification laws and both forms of castrations
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
Second time offenders of sex crimes such as rape should be castrated and emasculated slowly with a dull, rusty knife. The criminal should be revived every time he passes out from pain. This heinous crime deserves this much at the very least. After all, this person has violated another person and taken something away, a trust that can never be fully restored. The victims of these crimes never fully trust again.