Oh boy!

A man who pleaded guilty to raping two girls has agreed to surgical castration to avoid a life prison sentence.

I have to really marvel at stuff like this. I realize this is a form of punishment, but shouldn’t people actually have to face the music when they do something wrong? I’m certainly no big fan of the prison system, but I don’t know. Castration, last I checked, means losing use of the testicles (at least in modern times - see penectomy for penis removal). You certainly don’t need your testicle to rape somebody. What’s the point - so he can’t get them pregnant when he rapes again? Wikipedia even says:

there have been numerous cases of castrated men continuing to molest children

So… in other words, there’s basically no point? But even if they were cutting off everything he had down there does that really solve the problem? Won’t he just become a raging maniac and find other ways to release whatever need he has? And should the state even really be allowed to do that kind of shit?

A woman from a sex assault center is quoted in the article, and I do appreciate her perspective:

victims should not think that surgical castration will cure an attacker, because rape is more about a desire for dominance than sex.

Hm, according to Wikipedia though, castration does prevent baldness, so I guess there’s that. And here’s an article on self-castration as practiced in the early church (In Matthew 19:12, Jesus advocates making yourself a eunuch - try telling that to literalist Christians). Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health claims that self- or autocastration is a sign of impending schizophrenia. Also check out the museum that supposedly has Rasputin’s penis preserved in a jar (with photo), and the legend of Napoleon’s severed penis.