Regarding your March 23 editorial, ”A punish-ment that`s a crime,” I must expound. For a convicted rapist ”to be castrated rather than do time,” you correctly stated, ”wouldn`t be justice.” You also touched on some very important reasons why this would be a travesty. But you neglected to mention the ultimate reason cas-tration should not be legislated punishment for a person convic-ted of a sexual assault crime: Rape is not a crime about sex.
It is a heinous, under-reported violation of a person`s most basic and yet treasured possessions-the individual`s body and soul. Castration as punishment would succeed only in taking away the ”instrument” of choice. A person sick and/or demented enough to commit such a crime would still commit the crime if he were castrated.
