Chemical castration cleared for sex offenders - Norway

[dArKeR]

Oslo - Norwegian authorities have authorised "chemical castration" - through a drug that kills off a man's sex drive - for four convicted sex offenders, who have agreed to undergo the procedure, psychologists said on Tuesday.

"Four male prisoners, all convicted of rape and sexual abuse, have volunteered and have been cleared to received the treatment", psychologist Jim Aage Noettestad said.

All four are serving long prison terms, the duration of which will not be affected by the chemical treatment, which will be administered in a prison in Trondheim, northern Norway.

http://iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=3&art_id=qw108670014159N622&set_id=1

[noonwitch]

1. I am so opposed to castrating sex offenders in any way

Feminists worked hard to get rape to be defined as a crime of violence, and that is how it should be treated. Not as a crime of sex, although the way the media sensationalizes sex crimes, it's getting harder to draw the line.

A man doesn't need a functioning penis to rape a woman, just a desire to injure and humiliate, in order to feel empowered. Not only that, how do they propose to sentence a female sex offender?

[Merlin]

2. You are completely wrong on this.

Rape may be a crime of violence. But do not delude yourself into believing that it is not also at least 75% driven by hormones.

Reducing testosterone levels in males who commit sex crimes is a great idea, and I'm all for it. These people know they have a problem. Ask any 19 year old male what he thinks about 99% of the time. Excess testosterone is the root cause of a multitude of sins.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. The procedure is voluntary and I would imagine it does alter

IMPULSE..although rape is a crime of violence, I would suspect that it is mediated by IMPULSE.

[gator_in_Ontario]

4. That would be good

if rape was a sexual crime. Rape is a crime of dominance and violation. It's about control, not love-making. If the penis won't work, a rapist will find another tool.

[Miss Authoritiva]

5. We'll have to wait and see.

There have been very small, uncontrolled studies on chemical castration in the past. Some of the participants did express relief at their neutralization -- they no longer experienced obsessive thoughts and violent impulses.

Maybe people would be less squeamish about this if we blandly renamed chemical castration as male hormone adjustment therapy. And maybe less drastic hormone manipulation combined with antidepressant therapy (for obsessive thoughts) might work.