Castration or face tattoo? (Law)

A heated public debate on a proposal of performing chemical castration 化學去勢(hua4 xue2 qu4 shi4)on repeated sex offenders 性侵犯(xing4 qin fan4) has arisen in our society when we got shocked and indignant after a 13-year-old innocent girl was raped and murdered by a repeat sex offender, who had just done his time and been released one month before he committed the crime.

More than fifty thousand people signed up on Facebook asserting that this sex offender should be sentenced to death, which is related to another controversial topic—if the capital punishment 死刑(si3 xing2) should be abolished. 廢止(fei4 zhi3) Some legislator brought up chemical castration in the wake of the case.

Is that effective to curb the sex offenders? If we take into consideration all the incentives that cause a sex offense, said some experts, chemical castration alone won’t be enough. For one thing, sex offense involves not only physical 生理(sheng li3) but psychological 心理(xin li3)factors. For a sex offender, it doesn’t necessarily take a genital 性器官(xing4 qi4 guan)to make a sexual assault. He can do so even when he’s impotent,  sometimes even in a more “perverted” way.

Take the eunuch 宦官(huan4 guan), or 太監(tai4 jian4) for example. Though castrated 閹割(yian ge), many eunuchs, according to historical records, had promiscuous relationships with emperors’ concubines. Many of them even got married like ordinary people did, or even enjoyed a rich man’s life style with abundant concubines. Whether it was out of mental motives to shun loneliness, or to show off their wealth or power, we had evidence that castration doesn’t guarantee a man without sex drive.

As to face tattoo, 黥面(jing mian4), though a ritual for some Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes to mark a girl’s adulthood, it had also been a punishment for long in Chinese history. Words or patterns were inscribed onto obvious parts of the body, such as face of the convicts. Ink was applied so the marks would last forever. The convicts suffered not only in the process of it, but had to carry this shameful mark for the rest of their lives.

Instead of tattooing their face, we’ll publish a sex offender’s name and criminal record online, said the Minister of Domestic Affair today. We’re going to have a “Megan’s Law” of our own.

As a mother and a citizen of this society, I certainly don’t want to live with these dangerous people around. But on the other hand, we have to be very cautious with the capital punishment. It’s just too convenient a solution that sometimes we think it solves everything. But we are inevitable to complain why we, as taxpayers, should labor ourselves working but spend our money feeding those rascals in prison?

These days I’ve started to view this from another angle. What if we see these sex assaults as illed people and treat them like we do those T.B. patients? We pay and do what we can to quarantine and treat them, not only for their good but for OUR own? It certainly makes me feel better. And beyond the indignation that would make me yell “just execute them!” and sorry for the money I’ve “wasted,” I’m feeling something else for those sex offenders.

化學去勢=化学去势

廢止=废止

太監=太监

閹割=阉割