Sex Offenders: To Castrate or Not To Castrate Essay

Chemical castration is a reversible treatment for those with urges to commit sex crimes, as well as those who have had a history of convicted sex crimes. This drug treatment helps to lower sex drives and decrease aggressive and violent tendencies. There are side effects to this drug just as there are for every other medicine on the market. Although it was not created for men, they suffer no extra side effects than the women. Chemical castration is an exceptional alternative to prison time or it works as a stepping block for integration back into society. It is a more cost effective alternative as well as being more efficient in correcting the problem as opposed to locking it up. With strict guidelines and continual use it can be the most effective course of action for sexual offenders today.

About 43.9% of sex offenders identified both male and female perpetrators as opposed to 9.6% of nonsexual offenders. These individuals were exposed to more severe forms of victimization with a longer duration. Sex offenders endured an average of 5.6 years of abuse while nonsexual offenders experienced 3.9 years. Through the use of logistic regression analyses, Burton, Miller, and Shill (2002) concluded that method of operation and gender of abuser accurately predicts whether an individual will sexually offend. The analysis correctly predicted and placed 78.3% of the sex-offending males into their correct groups.

When entering the social work program I never gave much thought to who I did not want to work with, rather my focus was entirely on what population I do want to work with. After long thought, I decided I do not want to work with sex offenders, I’d rather work with children and perhaps that is where I get my bias against sex offenders or perhaps it stems from other reasons. Through my research, I am hoping to discover new information about sex offenders that may change my opinion and help me to see them in a new light.

There have been many federal acts passed in correspondence with sex offenses that illicit feat with the public. There are many different types of ways in which Levenson & colleagues’ (2007) describes the perceptions that the public has based on certain factors. For instance, in relation to the perception about the sex offender notification system, a survey produced results of around 80 percent in favor of these registries, because these individuals felt safer in their communities knowing who was in their neighborhood. Further, due to this fear that resonated in the early 1990’s communities do have tools such as residential restrictions, civil commitment, notification procedures, etc. that aid in the protection. However, there are myths associated with sex offenders, for example legislation often states that the reasoning for new laws and regulations is due to the high recidivism rates. However, sex offenders have significantly lower recidivism rates than believed. Also, there are countless people who do not believe that sex offenders can be assisted with techniques from a psychological standpoint. Most people think that these offenders cannot be treated, however, there is research being conducted that is promising. Finally, there is a common misconception that sex offenders kill their victims, especially children more often than other killers, however this is not true.

When we hear the phrase, sex offender, we normally feel repulsed. We think of dirty old creepy men. I for one used to do this, I won’t lie. This is because people like to rush to judgment. But my opinions changed when I came to the realization that it’s not just creepy old men who are sex offenders. I want to talk about them, but not those who are serial rapists or child molesters; they don’t deserve to be talked about. I’m talking about people who are convicted, whether it’s falsely, or unjustly, and have to wear a stamp on their forehead for the rest of their lives saying they are a sex offender.

Federal laws like the Adam Walsh Act and the Wetterling Act, which mandated long registration periods and the online posting of information including pictures and current addresses under the posting ‘Sex Offender and/or Crimes Against Children’, have resulted in a social stigma and humiliation for young people across America. Not to mention the cost of registration--fair for the true pedophile but not for the young person lacking a job or real place to call home.

Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their

The number of registered sex offenders have increasingly grew over the years. Every day you see a man or women added to the registry for crimes against women and mostly children. The sex offender registries biggest and main focus is to keep the people in the community in each city and state informed and protected. ”Sex offenders and sex crimes provoke a great deal of anxiety in our society.” Baker, J, Brannon, Y, N., Fortney. , Levenson, J.S. (“Public Perceptions about Sex Offenders and Community Protection”). The sex offender registry is based solely on protecting the public from being a victim

The purpose of this literature review is to discuss the importance of sexual offender treatment, to compare and contrast research points regarding treatment, and to address the validity of the peer reviewed articles. Every year 6,000 sex offenders enter treatment (Waldram, 2008). Various therapeutic treatment options are offered, and the primary focus is to rehabilitate and change behavior. The body of research reveals different therapeutic treatment models and discusses the purpose and effectiveness of each model. This paper will also discuss some of the challenges of implementing therapeutic treatment schemas as viable alternatives to treat sex offenders. Lastly, the research will also examine the impact of treatment as it relates to

Because reduction of the likelihood of offender recidivism in the future is clearly a priority, the criminal justice system has begun to look into the effectiveness of treatment programs. The following body of research further discusses the purpose and effectiveness of different treatment methods that can be employed by psychologists with the intention of rehabilitating sex offenders.

Sexual assault is one of the fastest growing violent crimes in America. Approximately 20% of all people charged with a sexual offense are juveniles. Among adult sex offenders, almost 50% report that their first offense occurred during their adolescence. (FBI, 1993) There are many different opinions, treatment options and legislation to manage the growing numbers of juvenile sex offenders. In today’s society the psychological and behavioral modification treatments used to manage juvenile sex offenders is also a growing concern. To understand and determine the proposed treatment methods, several related issues will need to be reviewed such as traditional sex offender therapy methods like cognitive therapy and alternative therapies like

When working with this specific population mental health professionals are often called on to evaluate and manage sex offender’s behavior. There are also times when individuals may be asked to give an opinion as to if the offender will repeat the behavior. Often times people that work with this population are referred to as (SOSs) Sex Offender Specialists. They have a specific group of diverse training and background. Some of these trainings incIude but are not limited to cognitive-behavioral, psychopharmacological, and therapeutic orientations.

Perpetrators of sex crimes committed against children often start by gaining the trust of potential victims and the adults in their lives’ by using a tactic called “grooming.” The purpose of this memo is to give the court a baseline understanding of what sex offender victim grooming is, its purpose, and techniques. Because of the extensive amount of research and information on this topic, this paper does not detail all of the grooming techniques used by child sex offenders to groom potential victims.

There have been hundreds to thousands of treatments that have been conducted, some similar and others drastically different. In this paper, I will go over just a few of the more important types of treatments. Brown et al, (2017) demonstrates three types of treatments. Pharmacological treatment, behavioral therapy, and most importantly cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). With pharmacological treatment’s their purpose is to reduce sex drive. The most common types of drugs used are antiandrogen, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and gonadotropic releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists. to go into more detail antiandrogen’s like cyproterone acetate (CPA) and medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA)

In the United States, required surgical or chemical castration is something that is not really considered as a form of punishment or a method of rehabilitation for sexual offenders. The reason for this