Does the molester of a 5-year-old child have the right to his sexual desire? Wilson doesn't think so. Offenders will be required to receive weekly injections of Depo-Provera, which curbs sexual desire. The effects of Depo-Provera, a synthetic hormone women commonly use as birth control, wear off without continued doses. Offenders may choose surgical castration instead of injections.
Massachusetts, Texas and Wisconsin refused to adopt similar legislation. The law's backers are quick to point out that in Europe, the procedure helped cause a drop in the repeat offender rate from nearly 100 percent to 2 percent. Those opposed to the law, specifically the American Civil Liberties Union, call it "barbaric."
Eliminating sexual desire - or a body part, for that matter - seems like a quick fix. No trying to squeeze extra convicts into already overcrowded jails. No spending money to feed and clothe another felon sentenced to life. Just get rid of the testes. But this law avoids the real issues.
The United States penal system - effective or not - is purportedly designed to protect society from harmful members and rehabilitate those who can rejoin society. Chemical castration does not make a criminal ready to face society. Offenders need to get to the root of the problem via psychological treatment. Treatment is crucial if the offenders are ever going to be contributing members of society. Counseling should be just as much a part of the penal system as jail time is - it is a more civilized way to deal with criminals than physical mutation.
Not only is castration - surgical or chemical - cruel and unusual punishment, it is ineffective. Rapists have raped without a penis. Molesters can find ways to be violent with children.
Sexual assault is not about sex - that's a myth. The law reinforces a stereotype that men are sex-crazed individuals and molesters need to be drugged to control sexual impulses. In reality, sexual assaults are about violence, power and the humiliation of the survivor or victim.
Repeat molesters are unquestionably disturbed people who have trouble functioning in society. Affected communities may want offenders to feel the pain they have caused. And the criminal justice system might never realize the possibility of reform. However, each human being has the right to control his or her own body. The American judicial system must protect offenders from maiming and chemical alteration. Men who molest children under age 13 have the right to sit in a jail cell indefinitely, such as the men who rape grandmothers and women who molest 15-year-olds.
Just because their bodies are intact doesn't mean they aren't paying for their crimes.