Indonesia To Introduce Chemical Castration As A Deterrent For Paedophiles

The government of Indonesia will introduce the practice of “chemical castration” into their criminal justice system as a way to keep convicted pedophiles from repeat crimes and as a deterrence to potential criminals.

Indonesia will join a small group of nations that allows such punishment, including Poland, Russia, and Estonia, as well as some U.S. states. In 2011, South Korea became the first Asian country to use chemical castration as a punishment.

"We are very concerned about child molestation abuse cases. This phenomenon has reached extraordinary levels," Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo told reporters after a cabinet meeting late on Tuesday. "It has been agreed that there will be additional punishment in order to make people think a thousand times before doing this," he said.

Statistics shows that child abuse cases had increased from 2,178 cases in 2011 to 5,066 cases in 2014. thus the introduction of such steep punishment. 

General Prasetyo said the punishment would be authorised soon through a presidential directive, which means it will automatically become law without parliament having to vote on it. It would be carried out by injecting paedophiles with female hormones that would reduce sex drive, he said.