Religion & Law

The horrifying rape and murder of high schooler Chelsea King brings to mind one of the most vexing questions facing our criminal justice system: what should we do with sex offenders?  I don't have an easy answer, other than that we need to be careful not to expand the category of sex offenses to include folks who do not pose a significant risk of danger in the future.  But for those who fall squarely within that classification, how do we safeguard the community while respecting the dignity of the offender?  As science helps us identify tendencies, there will be a temptation to intervene earlier and more aggressively.  Chemical castration is a popular option, especially since life imprisonment for most sex offenses is not an option.  But as John Stinneford has argued in this excellent paper, chemical castration itself poses (or should pose) significant problems for those committed to human dignity.