A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #362 - Spotlight - VSS in the United Kingdom: Chemical Castration Is a False Solution (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On May 22, the British Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahomood, 
announced that she was considering making chemical castration mandatory 
for certain types of sex offenders. But what exactly are we talking 
about? Are such practices already in use, what are their material 
implications, and what is their interpretation? Chemical castration, a 
sometimes misleading name, should be distinguished from surgical 
castration or sterilization, which deprive an individual of their 
ability to reproduce. It involves significantly reducing their libido by 
administering certain hormones. The spokesperson for the Secretary of 
State for Justice stated that "the scientific evidence is clear that 
chemical treatments are effective in treating dangerous offenders." In 
reality, very little data exists to support this claim.

Thus, although several countries around the world allow courts to 
criminally sentence a person to chemical castration, their example is 
not convincing. In Europe, this is the case, for example, in Poland and 
Estonia, which introduced this possibility in 2010 and 2012 
respectively. This has not prevented the number of recorded cases of 
gender-based and sexual violence (GBV) from increasing since then in 
these two countries. In France, it is a little more subtle: the court 
can issue a treatment order during a judgment and have chemical 
castration prescribed by a doctor, with the consent of the convicted 
person... who often faces imprisonment if they refuse. Coercion is 
preferred to obligation.

A Misleading State Discourse
Let us make no mistake: the use of chemical castration is not motivated 
by the desire of states to more effectively combat GBV. As the British 
minister acknowledges, this is in fact a simple pretext to allow the 
release of people sentenced to prison under chemical castration, while 
prisons are grossly overcrowded.

But nothing is said, for example, about possible additional funding for 
psychological support for convicts. How can we claim to limit the risk 
of reoffending without offering real long-term support for perpetrators? 
Finally, by presenting sexual assault as a problem linked to sexual 
desire disorders, by individuals with urges that can be cured with 
medical treatment, we are propagating an individualizing and 
pathologizing framework that completely misses the structural reasons 
that allow and encourage this violence.

Putting power relations at the heart of our analysis helps us remember 
that this is not the first time that the United Kingdom has claimed to 
be able to treat "deviants" with hormones. It thus imposed chemical 
castration on a massive scale on LGBTI people during the 20th century, 
notably thanks to the Labouchère Amendment of 1885. By criminalizing 
"gross indecency," this law was used to convict more than 65,000 people 
for alleged homosexual conduct, such as scientist Alan Turing, who 
committed suicide in 1954 while being administered estrogen.

One more reason why our eagerness to fight SGBV should not lead us to 
concede to the state the power to infiltrate the deepest recesses of our 
private lives, to the point of controlling our sexual desire.

Johanna (UCL Finistère)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?VSS-au-Royaume-Uni-La-castration-chimique-est-une-fausse-solution
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