Louisiana Senate Passes a Bill that Allows Sex Offenders to be Castrated
By Duane Lester • Apr 16th, 2008 • 143 ViewsI admit, I had to do a double take on the headline of this story when I was scanning my Google Reader, but there it was, “La. Senate Passes Sex Offender Castration Bill“:
BATON ROUGE, La. — The most serious sex crimes should be punishable by castration, with drugs or surgery, the Louisiana Senate voted on Tuesday.
The bill by Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux, would give judges the option of imposing chemical castration on those convicted of sex crimes including aggravated rape, simple rape and indecent behavior with a juvenile. Chemical castration would be mandatory on second offenses, and the offender would have the option of choosing physical castration instead.
Senators voted 32-3 to send the measure to the House.
Chemical castration is where the convicted takes a drug that reduces his sexual urges, or is supposed to anyway. The drug can be countered with another drug, but the bill says the offender can’t take it, so there’s no chance of that happening.
The offender can also opt for just having his beanbag lopped off. Seems pretty final, and since sex crimes are generally about power, I don’t know how effective losing your sac would be towards making a man feel powerful.
So what are your thoughts? Is this the most effective way to deal with sex offenders, or is there a better way?
