Debate heats up over chemical castration of more sex offenders

• Published date: 22 February 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Whether chemical castration should be ordered as punishment on more child sex offenders is emerging as a key issue in legal circles, after the prosecution recently requested a court to order such a penalty for serial rapist Kim Geun-sik.

These discussions reflect long-standing concerns that punishment ordered on child sex offenders in the past did not match their brutal crimes and that existing systems to monitor released offenders have insufficiently reduced repeat offenses.

Chemical castration involves administering medication ? either via injection or tablets ? to repress sexual interest.

The related law came into effect in 2011 in Korea amid public outcry over a series of child rapists reoffending following their release.

Kim had served 15 years in prison for raping 11 minors in Seoul and its surrounding areas from May to September of 2006.

The 55-year-old was supposed to be released from prison in October last year. Just before his release, Kim was arrested again. Investigators found that he was the assailant in an unsolved case in which a 13-year-old girl was molested in September of 2006.

During a second trial last Friday, the prosecution requested a district court in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to order chemical castration as punishment on Kim, referring to the results of his psychiatric evaluation.

Several experts also raised the need for the enforcement of chemical castration on Kim, including Pyo Chang-won, a renowned criminal profiler and former lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea...