Lawmaker to submit bill on physical castration for sex offenders

A ruling Saenuri Party lawmaker will submit a bill Thursday to the National Assembly on allowing the use of physical castration (surgical treatment) on sex offenders in addition to chemical castration (using drugs to suppress sexual urges).

Rep. Park In-sook from Seoul’s Songpa A district, who formerly headed the Korea Medical Women’s Association, will submit the bill on enacting a “law on surgical treatment of sexual offenders.” The bill is designed to allow judges to sentence a sex offender who is believed to have the potential to repeat his or her crime and cannot be rehabilitated by society to physical castration after an experts’ review. Park will also submit a bill to revise the criminal code to add castration to the list of criminal penalties including imprisonment and capital punishment.

Physical castration refers to the removal of the testicles, which generate male hormones, and thus fundamentally suppress sexual desire in a sex offender. The lawmaker said, “Treatment with drugs could entail problems including strong sexual urges resulting from drug resistance and a stop to treatment, and hence this is not a fundamental solution.”

A bill on surgical treatment for sex offenders against minors under age 16 was submitted to the 18th General Assembly, but was scrapped due to fears over human rights violations.

European countries including Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany have introduced physical castration for sex offenders. In Germany, castration is performed on an offender after gaining the latter`s consent, and about five choose to undergo the procedure each year. The German government rejected a human rights appeal from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, an international organization, demanding the revocation of physical castration in February.

The German government cited a long-term survey on 104 sex offenders who underwent physical castration in the 1970s and 1980s, and said just 3 percent struck again while 46 percent of those who did not get the surgery committed more crimes.

In Korea, the government will reportedly expand the scope of sex offenders forced to receive chemical castration. Criminal laws require the use of the procedure only on offenders who committed sex crimes against minors under age 16, but the age will be raised to 19.

Justice Minister Kwon Jae-jin reported this and other measures to President Lee Myung-bak in a Cabinet meeting held at the presidential office Tuesday. The president said in his regular radio address Monday, “The government needs to proactively consider all possible measures, including using drugs to treat sex offenders, while elevating the efficacy of electronic monitoring anklets.”

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