Sex Offender Essay

Sex crimes is a serious problem in the United States. The legal system is lenient with sex criminals, punishing them with insufficiently brief prison sentences that are further abbreviated by the option of parole. Some sex offenders are released back into society after serving as little as one fourth of their prison-time. Recidivism is extremely high among sexual predators; 75% are convicted more than once for sexually abusing young people. Sex offenders commit sexual assault for a variety of reasons. Some rape children because of similar instances of abuse in their own childhoods.

Some view rape as a way to gain power over another individual. Some of these criminals act purely on sexual desires. No matter what causes these heinous criminals to commit their crime, their crimes are inexcusable. Unfortunately, utilizing prison as a punishment for sex offenders creates only a temporary fix for the issue of sexual assault and other resolutions need to be investigated to prevent these predators from violating another person. Sexual predators repeating their crimes is no surprise to the justice system or anyone else.

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Sex offenders are among the highest reoccurring offense population in the United States probation system. The number of prisoners sentenced for violent sexual assault other than rape increased an average of nearly 15%. That’s faster than any other category of violent and non-violent crimes except drug trafficking. It’s extremely alarming to me considering there is not a good enough deterrent for these predators to not act on their urges. They are not being put away for life and there is a slim to none chance of rehabilitation for them.

There are some people who believe that chemical castration is the best, and really the only option to prevent repeat offenses. Alternative options for the punishment of sex offenders are being explored in the status quo. Scientists have observed the link between testosterone and aggression and concluded that high levels of testosterone correspond with increased violent and aggressive behavior in men. “It is the reason that stallions are high strung and impossible to train, the reason male dogs become vicious and start to bite people. It’s why boys take chances and chase girls, why they drive too fast and deliberately start ights. In violent criminals, these tendencies are exaggerated and carried to extremes”. (Langevin, Wright & Handy, 1990) In an effort to stop male pedophiles, male child molesters have the option of being chemically castrated in some states. “Chemical castration is a term used to describe treatment with a drug called Depo-Provera that, when given to men, acts on the brain to inhibit hormones that stimulate the testicles to produce testosterone”. (Langevin, Wright & Handy, 1990) Depo-Provera is a common birth control pill that containing a synthetic version of the female hormone progesterone.

Advocates of chemical castration hope that injections of Depo-Provera will prevent men from molesting children. However, some experts argue that Depo-Provera is ineffective and will not prevent molestation. Forced castration may have the adverse affect of angering a criminal, increasing his violent tendencies and lead to additional sexual abuse. Additionally, Depo-Provera is reversible. Therefore, unless injections are mandatory and monitored, pedophiles will not be “cured” by the drug therapy. The child molester will have renewed sexual fantasies and high levels of testosterone if the injections are discontinued.

Joseph Frank Smith, a convicted child molester, became an advocate for chemical castration after undergoing the therapy in the 1980s. Smith stopped using the injections in 1989. In 1999, he was convicted for molesting a five-year old girl and immediately returned to prison. Depo-Provera also has caused side effects in some men “including depression, fatigue, diabetes and blood clots”. Chemical castration may cause some detrimental effects in child molesters. Regardless, Depo-Provera has been proven to inhibit the abilities of pedophilias to assault children.

The progesterone in Depo-Provera counteracts the biological tendencies that lead men to rape children. By lowering testosterone, Depo-Provera reduces sex drive. Males can have sexual intercourse but do not want to. Depo-Provera also decreases aggressive tendencies by reducing testosterone. The castrated criminal would be more docile and have a better opportunity to be rehabilitated, educated, and to become a worthwhile citizen. Castration removes the biological and chemical tendencies that are intrinsically linked to the desire to rape in males.

Depo-Provera also reduces recidivism rates. When used as a mandatory condition of parole, chemical castration decreases the occurrence of repeat offenses from 75% to 2%. Prison is less desirable because it serves no rehabilitative purpose for sexual offenders. Pedophiles who spend time festering in a prison cell are given extensive downtime to concoct new sordid sexual fantasies involving children. These horrific visions are translated into terrifying realities once the criminal comes back into contact with children following his inevitable release from prison.

Pedophiles do not want to be incarcerated again so they think of new ways to rape children that will avoid detection and future detention. Prison increases aggressive tendencies in male pedophiles while chemical castration addresses the root causes of sexual assault and decreases further sexual deviance. Although chemical castration is not the perfect solution to inhibit child molestation, it discourages sexual assault better than incarceration. Injections of Depo-Provera decrease the aggressive tendencies that lead to rape in males.

Castration also discourages sexual fantasies and eradicates sexual obsessions. Pedophiles are reduced to apathetic pacifists. Regulated chemical castration should be encouraged as an alternative to prison for male child molesters in order to stop recidivism and decrease instances of sexual assault. Many opponents of the sexual predator laws base their opposition on the fact that they believe that, like other criminals, sex offenders deserve the right to rehabilitate themselves. There are three main types of treatment currently directed toward rehabilitating sex offenders. The first is Behavioral Therapy.

Behavioral therapy utilizes rewards and punishments in order to influence behavior. If an offender becomes aroused by talking about or looking at pictures of a “deviant fantasy” he is then punished in some physical way. The second type is Cognitive Therapy. With help from a therapist, an offender is taught how to change his perceptions about sex. The offender is shown that his crimes are inappropriate. The offender is then supposed to learn his “danger signs” so that he will be able to separate himself from the type of criminal activity he had committed previously. The third type is Medical Therapy.

Basically this involves the use of Depo-Provera. Depo-Provera is a drug that began being used in 1966. It lowers the sex drive of an offender by lowering his testosterone level. This type of therapy is very controversial. There are both short and long term negative side effects associated with the drug. In addition, there are some who believe that treating very dangerous sex offenders – such as rapists – with a drug does not alter the rage and anger these individuals have; there is some fear that they may express those feelings by committing other forms of fatal physical violence.

In 2005, a Canadian survey was done that asked the sex offenders themselves what kind of treatment they wanted. The 87 offenders were either sexual aggressors against adult females, incest perpetrators or pedophilic offenders. Individual psychotherapy, social skills training and group therapy were the preferred methods. The least acceptable was aversion conditioning and it is the most frequently used therapy. They also found drug therapy to be unacceptable. (Purvis 2005) There were two important and interesting facts that the survey revealed. First was “only 49. % of the subjects wanted treatment. ” (Langevin, Wright & Handy, 1990) The second was that “fewer than 2 in 5 considered their anomalous sexual behavior to be problematic. ” (Langevin, Wright & Handy, 1990) One opinion is that sometime during their childhood socialization their development is perverted or somehow left incomplete. As children they never learn that some gratification must be deferred and some completely denied. They do not develop a sense of empathy. Once the personality is in place that lack of empathy cannot be effectively introduced.

A lack of empathy is one trait that can define a sociopath. Sex offender rehabilitation has been questioned for years in that nobody can actually prove that it works. According to research it is extremely hard to rehabilitate a sex offender. Many ways of rehabilitation have been introduced and they all have their pros and cons but I personally believe sex predators should receive a much harsher punishment and even spend life behind bars. Resources: Purvis, N. (2009) Should We Punish or Rehabilitate Child Molesters? Some People Claim Pedophiles Cannot Be Treated. What Should We Do…

Lock Them Up Forever? Retrieved May 22, 2010 from www. childmolestationprevention. org/pages/focus_on_the_cause. html Child Molestation Prevention (2009) Ongoing sex drive directed towards children. Retrieved May 20, 2010 from Child Molestation research and prevention institute: http://www. childmolestationprevention. org/pages/focus_on_the_cause. html Wright, P. , Langevin, R. , & Handy, G. (1990). Brain density and symmetry in pedophilic and sexually aggressive men. Annals of Sex Research. Retrieved May 20,2010 from http://www. sexual-offender-treatment. org/56. html

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