Combating sexual violence — is ‘chemical castration’ a sound technique?

Written by Warda Imran
“Chemical castration” is a well-liked time period for what medical doctors name “anti-libidinal” therapy. It means decreasing male testosterone by administering a drug much like the feminine hormone progesterone by injections or drugs.
“There are indications that it works, but there is no concrete evidence to prove how effective it is,” Jürgen Müller, a Göttingen-based neurologist, and forensic psychiatrist, informed DW.

To date, no worldwide research has been carried out that would successfully consider the success of this therapy.
But a number of international locations in Europe, together with Germany, supply castration to potential and convicted sexual offenders — as one type of therapy, not as a punishment, and solely on a voluntary foundation.
A mannequin for Pakistan?
Pakistan is presently debating whether or not it ought to introduce “chemical castration” as a punishment for sexual abuse.
Life imprisonment and the dying penalty are the present punishment choices for rapists and pedophile offenders underneath Pakistan’s prison code.
But the nation is contemplating further measures following nationwide outrage in response to a rising variety of rape instances.
In 2018, 7-year-old Zainab was raped and murdered within the district of Kasur close to the provincial capital of Lahore. In the wake of this incident, violent protests erupted in Kasur, and other people everywhere in the nation took to the streets demanding justice.
During the DNA testing of the suspect, it was discovered that he was accountable for no less than 5 different rapes. He was hanged for his crimes the identical yr.
In 2020, the nation was as soon as once more enraged when a girl was gang-raped on a motorway close to Lahore in entrance of her two younger kids. The case remains to be being tried in court docket.
Prime Minister Imran Khan prompt public hangings of rapists and pedophiles. But he pressured that worldwide strain was holding him again: Pakistan’s commerce standing with the European Union may very well be threatened, he stated.
“What my opinion is is that we should do ‘chemical castration’; we need new laws that leave these people incapable of any sexual acts,” Khan then prompt, and an ordinance was proposed that might add anti-libidinal therapy to the penal code.
Does ‘chemical castration’ stop rape?
Chemical castration has been discovered to be efficient in decreasing intercourse drive and the seminal fluid in a male. But this doesn’t stop sexual violence or aggressive habits.
Even decreasing the testosterone stage to zero doesn’t eradicate probabilities of reoffending. “One doesn’t need to have an erection to be able to molest a child or rape a person,” explains sociologist Andrej König from Dortmund University. Even if the lads can not penetrate, they’ll nonetheless present aggressive and problematic habits.
Serious unwanted effects and moral facets
“Chemical castration” shouldn’t be a fast process — the medication are prescribed for a sure interval or indefinitely. They are more likely to set off heavy unwanted effects, together with breast development, despair and the chance of osteoporosis, amongst different issues.
In Germany and different European international locations, castration is predicated firmly on consent. It is run to intercourse offenders on a voluntary foundation.
“Some perpetrators feel a certain amount of guilt and disgust at their actions; for them, this (chemical treatment) is a kind of atonement,” forensic psychiatrist Callum Ross at Broadmoor Hospital within the UK informed DW.
“Drug treatment is always embedded in behavioral therapy or psychotherapy,” JürgenMüller explains. Drive-attenuating chemical therapy alone shouldn’t be enough, he provides — that is solely one of many many therapeutic approaches to cope with sexual offenders.
To make use of drug therapy with loads of unwanted effects as a punishment is a “very, very problematic” thought, he warns, calling it questionable “from a medico-ethical perspective.”
Whether offenders go for castration in a real bid to vary is troublesome to gauge, cautions sociologist König. Individuals can’t be pressured to endure it, but when they’re supplied some freedom, they’re extra more likely to “volunteer,” he added.
In the UK and Germany, for instance, prisoners have admitted to choosing the therapy in the event that they felt it would scale back their jail time or assist safe them early parole.
However: “Chemical castration should not be a substitute for reforming the prison system,” warns Thomas Douglas, a professor of utilized philosophy on the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Applied Ethics. He advocates for rehabilitation applications for offenders and their reintegration into society.
Chemical vs surgical castration
Europe has employed each surgical and “chemical castration” prior to now and current — however just for sure aggressive, violent sexual offenders.
The Czech Republic is the one nation to presently take the surgical route, the place the gonads are eliminated by an incision within the physique.
“This is the only reliable way to treat the most aggressive of the offenders,” Czech sociologist Katerina Liskova of Masaryk University informed DW. The variety of intercourse offenders choosing surgical castration is small, Liskova pressured: “It is a tiny number of men, and they opt for it voluntarily,” she stated.
She pointed to research within the Czech Republic, the place solely 4 in 100 intercourse offenders who had been surgically castrated later offended once more.
Until 2012, Germany, too, supplied sexual offenders the choice of surgical castration. But the follow was abolished in response to criticism from the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Punishment.
At current, Germany provides “chemical castration” as an choice in forensic psychiatric settings — for intercourse offenders who’re mentally ailing and harmful and are housed in high-security hospitals.
About 25% of sufferers in forensic hospitals take medication for “chemical castration” solely on a voluntary foundation, in keeping with sociologist Andrej König. Germany has no statistical proof proving that the therapy positively reduces the possibility of reoffending.
“I have never met a patient who said they took the medicine and now have no sexual fantasies or urges of masturbation,” he stated. “It doesn’t change their fantasies either. If a pedophile takes part in a ‘chemical castration’ program, his fantasies won’t change. They may not be as frequent, but they still exist,” he informed DW.

Structural reform wanted in Pakistan
Pakistan is contemplating the introduction of “chemical castration” as a compulsory moderately than voluntary measure as a part of the sentence for intercourse offenders.
European consultants are skeptical.
Introducing draconian measures is usually a vote-winner, says forensic psychiatrist Callum Ross. But he urges an understanding that “chemical castration” is a type of therapy, not of punishment.
“Chemical castration has not made society safer; still, it is propagated by conservative or right-wing parties as a solution for sex offenders,” says criminologist Dirk Baier of the ZHAW Institute of Delinquency at Zurich University in Switzerland. “It is a measure that enjoys high approval rates in some countries, where it contributes to a higher sense of security, even though there is no evidence for this.”

In Pakistan, the ladies and youngsters’s rights motion “Aurat March Lahore” is crucial of the concept. The motion calls for a reform that “overturns patriarchal structures” moderately than “short-term measures” corresponding to a authorized provision for “chemical castration.”