The Louisiana Rejoinder

Not entirely sure what to think of this yet, but Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has quickly figured out a second possible punishment for sex offenders -- forced castration.

The bill that he signed today provides that

on a first conviction of aggravated rape, forcible rape, second degree sexual battery, aggravated incest, molestation of a juvenile when the victim is under the age of 13, or an aggravated crime against nature, the court may sentence the offender to undergo chemical castration. On a second conviction of the above listed crimes, the court is required to sentence the offender to undergo chemical castration.

Two problems immediately pop up. First, the general "wow, this is overbroad" argument. There's no provision to deal with Romeo and Juliet situations, nor to deal with issues surrounding the mentally retarded, who may often fall into the same mental age range as the victims and who, in some cases, are actually the victims of the abuse but are considered the perpetrators under law because of their chronological age. Something more narrowly tailored might have been intelligent.

Second, it's unclear to what degree the chemical castration will actually prevent perpetrators from getting erections -- what good does it do to make them infertile if they can still get it up? Moreover, what happens if/when the chemical treatment wears off? (Interesting article written in 2001 on repeat sex offenders who had already had chemical castration.) Large doses are needed to tamp down male sexual desire, and even then they sometimes don't work. The chemicals do, however, give significant medical side effects on a regular basis.

And, of course, these arguments set aside two general criticisms of sex offender laws: (a) they actually do very little to deter what are often irrational crimes and (b) they reflect an inaccurate popular perception that sex crimes are usually performed by strangers.

I'm not in principle opposed to sex offender laws, and castration does seem a reasonable punishment, if reasonable is defined as "seems right to an average person." But this sort of law, while it may appeal to our sense of justice and vengeance, doesn't really have any rational, calculated thought behind it, and that worries me.

On a lighter note, another historical article reports on castration:

The controversial "Chemical Castration Bill" was accepted into law yesterday. This now provides for chemical castration as the standard punishment for each and every crime or infringement upon the law. It is being hailed as the best determent for crime ever. "I believe it to be an idea whose time has come," said Senator Dale Bumpers from Arkansas. "The American people are finally fighting back against criminals."