Czechs criticised over castration

[struggle4progress]

Source: BBC

The Czech Republic has been strongly criticised by Europe's leading human rights body for continuing to surgically castrate male sex offenders ...

"Surgical castration is a mutilating, irreversible intervention and cannot be considered as a medical necessity in the context of the treatment of sex offenders," the committee said in a report ...

"Moreover, given the context in which the intervention is offered, it is questionable whether consent to the option of surgical castration will always be truly free and informed," it added.

The committee said that its members found during a visit to two Czech psychiatric hospitals and two prisons in March and April 2008 that "a situation can easily arise whereby patients or prisoners acquiesce rather than consent, believing that it is the only available option to them to avoid indefinite confinement" ...

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7871783.stm

[skooooo]

1. Wow..

That will produce more psychologically-balanced males, I'm sure.






:sarcasm:

[Igel]

2. Also makes you wonder

exactly what's meant if you ask about somebody's employment he answers that he works in an office cutting checks.

[JayMusgrove]

3. OMG>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>ROFL eom

[WriteDown]

4. Wonder what the recidivism rate is....

in Czech Republic. Man, I miss Prague.

[damntexdem]

6. Very low -- few grow it all back.

And they seldom miss the Prague.

[struggle4progress]

8. " ... the establishment of a valid conclusion as regards re-offending rates ..

.. is notoriously troublesome from a methodological point of view. For example, in the course of its visit to the Czech Republic, the Committee’s delegation came across three cases in which sex offenders had committed serious sex related crimes, including serial rape and attempted murder, after they had been surgically castrated ... "

Report to the Czech Government on the visit to the Czech Republic carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 25 March to 2 April 2008 ... Strasbourg, 5 February 2009 ... http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/cze/2009-08-inf-eng.htm#_Toc220915674

Although a number of "studies" have gathered "data" on the recidivism question, it is very difficult to find studies which (1) include a large number of individuals, (2) involve uniform follow-up periods, (3) carefully match individuals by prior criminal history, including not only sexual assaults but other violent crimes (in order to compare real effects on recidivism), &c. The notion, that the sexual offender is simply a person unable to control hormonal impulses, probably does not survive critical examination in many cases: some sexual assaults are simply violent acts incorporating some sexual dimension; some sexual offenses result from diminished intellectual or psychological capacity; &c. Surgical or chemical reduction of testosterone is therefore very unlikely to reduce the tendency to crime uniformly, and the resulting changes in individual physiology and body-image might produce counter-productive psychological effects. At best, current scientific knowledge does not support claims that the treatment is effective

[damntexdem]

5. Now that's bouncing some Czechs.

With a likely castrate of thousands.

[struggle4progress]

7. Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on the Czech Republic

http://www.cpt.coe.int/documents/cze/2009-02-05-eng.htm

includes links to the Committee's report and the Czech response