Reply #27: If they want it, fine. But to force it on them? No.

[Lyric]

I do not believe in forcing medication upon a person who is sane enough to be in charge of their own medical decisions. Also, female hormones can increase the risk of developing heart disease and certain types of cancers. We have no right to force such a risk upon anyone.

Besides, what would we do to the female sex offenders? Plenty of them are already taking Depo-Provera, and giving them testosterone would make them more sexually aggressive, not less. Most pedophiles are male, but there ARE some that are female, after all. I am opposed to any legal punishment that is tailored to apply to only one gender. I advocate for getting RID of laws that treat men and women differently (like bans on topless women where topless men are permitted.) This would be counter to everything I believe in as a principle.

I also do not think we should treat all sex offenders alike. Some are more likely to re-offend than others. A guy who gets drunk and pees on a tree in a public park should NOT be on a sex offender registry for the rest of his life. Someone who's a true pedophile should NOT be released out into the public. True pedophilia is a dangerous psychosis that needs to be treated as such--not as a simple crime. If we treat it as a dangerous psychosis, we can keep them locked up where they belong (preferably in a mental health treatment center, not a prison.)

Our society's obsession with "punishing" people for having a mental illness is extremely disturbing, and yet, whenever anyone SAYS that out loud, they're accused of "defending child rapers." It must be nice to live in such a black-and-white world. As for me, I do not consider it cruel "punishment" to lock up true, diagnosed pedophiles for 50+ years. They are as dangerous to society as any other criminally psychotic person. I think it's crueler to let them out of prison and expect them to somehow "suppress" a mental illness by sheer willpower. Depo-Provera is not 100% effective, and it's also not gender-neutral. Keeping them locked away from children for life is both. Being locked up for 50+ years will not increase aggressive tendencies, provided that it's in a mental institution with therapy and medications. Such a solution would not be "punishment;" it would merely be the sad but necessary action required to keep children safe.

And yes, I am a former victim of child molestation. I was three. The guy who molested me was my adult cousin. He's dead now, but if he were still alive, I'd rather that he be in a mental institution than a prison, because he was truly, deeply SICK. I carry no anger about it, even though it was traumatic, because I understand that he wasn't of sound mind.