Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Louisiana became the first state in the United States to impose surgical castration as a criminal punishment.
O new lawThe law, which took effect on Thursday, allows the court to order surgical castration – the removal of a man’s testicles or a woman’s ovaries – as punishment for adults convicted of first- or second-degree aggravated rape in cases involving child victims under the age of 13.
Some states already impose chemical castration, a reversible procedure, as punishment. But only Louisiana requires surgical castration.
The measure comes amid a wave of “tough on crime” legislation passed this year by Louisiana’s conservative supermajority and signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who took office in January.
Critics, however, warn that such laws are radically punitive and ultimately ineffective in preventing crime.
Among those openly speaking out against the law is George Annas, director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights at Boston University. He described the measure as “anti-medicine” and unconstitutional: “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Anticipated legal challenges
Louisiana and several other states, including California and Florida, already have laws mandating chemical castration for certain sexual crimes.
This procedure usually involves injections of Depo Provera, a birth control medication that temporarily reduces testosterone in both men and women.
Even this procedure has its detractors. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) never approved the drug for treating sex offenders, and critics criticize the placement of doctors in the position of meting out punishments in the criminal justice system.
Such laws They have already been repealed in Oregon and Georgia and considered unconstitutional in South Carolina.
But unlike chemical castration, surgical castration is permanent. Lawyers like Annas have raised questions about whether surgical castration violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Annas warns that the law is also unconstitutional, as it denies the right to reproduction and the right to bodily integrity. Under Louisiana’s new law, an offender can refuse the procedure, but if they do so, they will receive an additional prison sentence of three to five years.
“If you can get out of prison by volunteering your testicles,” Annas said, “that’s coercive.”
He believes the law will not survive the inevitable legal challenges by human rights groups.
“It’s blatantly unconstitutional,” Annas said. “There is no way any judge in this country, even in Louisiana, would consider this to be a valid punishment.”
Giacomo Castrogiovanni, a lawyer who runs the reentry program at the Loyola University Legal Clinic, described the new law as “very aggressive” and agrees that it will face legal challenges.
“I hope it will be a really strong challenge,” Castrogiovanni said — but he is less certain than Annas that he will be successful in overturning the law. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen with this. It will be interesting.”
Effectiveness Questions
But beyond its legal merits, the surgical castration law has increased scrutiny over its effectiveness in combating sexual crimes.
Anás argued that the law would simply be ineffective. “It’s very difficult to find a doctor who thinks this makes any medical sense,” he said.
The desire to commit sexual violence, he explained, “is not necessarily related to the amount of testosterone you have”.
Dr. Katrina Sifferd, a criminal justice researcher and former legal analyst at the National Institute of Justice, also expressed skepticism. “Sometimes there are claims that it will rehabilitate, deter or incapacitate,” she said. “And it appears that is not the case.”
Sifferd explained that people who commit sexual crimes against children do so for many different reasons: “trauma, aggression, need for love – all kinds of things” that castration would not solve.
And castration does not necessarily decrease sexual urges or prevent erections.
“There is no scientific evidence that this ‘works’ to save anyone. And it certainly won’t cure the person of being a pedophile,” said Annas.
For her part, Sifferd said she understands the reluctance to protect the rights of people who have committed serious crimes against children.
But she emphasized that corporal — or physical — punishment should not be part of the U.S. criminal legal system.
“The criminal justice system must maintain its moral authority. And every punishment applied must be justified,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s going to be a slippery slope in what we allow the state to do.”
A punitive approach
The new law highlights long-standing concerns about the punitive nature of Louisiana’s criminal justice system.
Louisiana was called “prison capital in the world.” It has the highest incarceration rate of any state in a country that already surpasses all other democracies in terms of the proportion of people behind bars.
Of every 100,000 people in Louisiana, approximately 1,067 people are locked up in jails, prisons and detention centers.
Louisiana’s surgical castration law takes effect as part of a wave of legislation that creates even more crimes to prosecute.
Among the laws taking effect Thursday is a measure that makes it a crime to remain within 7.6 meters — or 25 feet — of a police officer after being told to back off.
Another law will make possession of non-prescription abortion medications punishable by up to five years in prison. Another eliminates parole.
Experts who spoke to Al Jazeera largely interpreted the new castration law as a Republican effort.
Castrogiovanni, the lawyer, described it as “a new implementation of conservative policies” that tend to reflect more punitive approaches to dealing with crime. He pointed out that until recently, Louisiana had a Democratic governor who could veto some of the right’s most controversial bills.
However, the surgical castration law passed by wide margins in both chambers of the state Legislature. In the state Chamber, it was approved by 74 votes to 24, and in the Senate it received 29 votes, easily defeating the nine “no” votes.
Democrats were among his supporters. In fact, two were the authors of the project.
A personal battle
One of the co-authors was state Rep. Delisha Boyd, who spent the same legislative session unsuccessfully defending bills that represent more traditional Democratic priorities: protecting gay rights and reproductive access, for example.
She even drew on her own experiences to argue that Louisiana’s abortion ban should include exceptions for rape and incest.
His mother, Boyd testified before the Louisiana legislature, was raped as a minor. She became pregnant with Boyd when she was just 15, and Boyd testified that the trauma of the rape and forced pregnancy contributed to her mother’s death before she was 30.
This project, however, failed.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Boyd reflected on the irony: Louisiana doctors can now perform a medical procedure as punishment for rape, but those same doctors can be arrested for providing medical care to a rape survivor.
“I’m disgusted by this,” Boyd said. She finds it hypocritical for abortion opponents to say they want to protect children but also “want to keep [the child rape victim] with a whole other human being in her body, ignoring that it’s not even her choice to have this baby.”
“I’m here because my mom went through this,” she added.
That personal story, Boyd explained, is part of the reason she became an advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
Boyd stridently defends the law of surgical castration. She considers some of her critics to be apologists for child sex offenders.
“I’m offended by anyone who actually read this bill and still wants to defend the rapist,” she said.
And she doubts the penalty will be imposed often. She pointed out that chemical castration, which is already a penalty in Louisiana, has been imposed only a few times in the last 20 years.
But Boyd believes that if the surgical castration law stops even one person, it will be worth it.
Sifferd, however, called this reasoning “a really dangerous argument” to make. In his opinion, extreme punishments risk causing greater harm to society.
“Imagine if we applied this to other types of crimes, right? We give a $10,000 fine for speeding if it stops even one person from going the speed limit, so we’re going to give it to everyone. It’s unjustified,” Sifferd said.
Sifferd also noted that there is consistent evidence showing that imposing harsher penalties is not an effective deterrent to crime.
Focus on survivors
Some advocates also argue that the focus on punishment distracts from survivors themselves.
The Committee for Children, a non-profit organization, he wrote a policy brief explaining that “the vast majority of government funding for child abuse” goes to “convicting and managing the perpetrator” rather than preventing the abuse in the first place.
This could include programs to support survivors or alleviate risk factors. Studies indicate that rates of sexual violence are linked to economic and gender inequality.
And Louisiana has the second largest poverty rate in the US, not to mention one of the highest in the country maternal mortality rates.
A recent study from Tulane University in New Orleans found that 41% of respondents reported having experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
Boyd said this points to a larger issue: “Women and children are endangered species in this state.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
