Daniel C.Tsang and AndrewVachss

California passed a law in September 1996 requiring certain sex offenders to be castrated after their second offense. In Part I of the following two-part viewpoint, Daniel C. Tsang argues that although chemical castration may lower a sex offender’s sex drive, the treatment will not prevent further sex crimes because it does not account for the fact that rape is a crime of violence. In Part II, Andrew Vachss maintains that castration will not remove sex offenders’ desire or motivation to rape. Rapists rape because they want to, Vachss contends, not because they are driven by an uncontrollable urge. Castration will not change their motivation, he asserts. Tsang is the author of a chapter on Depo-Provera treatment in the book Sex, Cells, and Same-Sex Desires. Vachss is...