The Thai Senate on Monday approved a bill that would allow recidivist sex offenders to choose chemical castration in exchange for a reduction in their prison terms.
The bill, which the House of Representatives first passed in February, was approved by the Senate with two abstentions, but it has not yet been enacted.
Under the bill, sex offenders deemed at risk of reoffending can get injections of drugs that will reduce their testosterone levels in exchange for shorter jail sentences. But they would need approval from at least two physicians.
“I want this law to pass quickly,” Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said on Tuesday. “I don’t want to see news about bad things happening to women again.”
Chemical castration requires an injection every three months, costing approximately 100,000 baht ($2,757) per treatment. Sex offenders who consent to the process will be monitored for 10 years and have to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.
According to estimates from the government, 4,848 of the 16,413 convicted sex offenders released from Thai prisons between 2013 and 2020 reoffended.
But some argued that chemical castration will not help to reduce sex crimes in Thailand. Sen. Triroj Krutvecho, who is also a doctor and a member of the House committee, said there is no proof that chemical castration can effectively reduce offenders’ sexual urges.
Jaded Chouwilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, a non-governmental organization that addresses sexual violence, among other areas, said use of chemical castration would not tackle sex crime.
“Convicts should be rehabilitated by changing their mindset while in prison,” Chouwilai said. “To use punishment like execution or injected castration reinforces the idea that offender can no longer be rehabilitated.”
Poland, South Korea, Russia, Estonia, and nine U.S. states are among the nations that use chemical castration on sexual offenders.
Indonesia in 2020 mandated chemical castration for child rapists as a way to prevent sexual violence against children. But Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned it as “a cruel and degrading form of corporal punishment.”
