Castration sanction in terms of the principle of humanism in Criminal Law

Sex crimes constitute one of the most important problems of today's societies. It is seen that the prison sentences are insufficient in terms of struggle with increasing sexual criminality. This situation leads states to new searches. In many societies, for the purpose of reducing sex crimes by preventing recidivism, the practice of castration on sexual crime perpetrators is on the agenda. The method of castration can be applied as a treatment method or it can also be applied as a criminal law sanction. In order to resort to castration as a sanction, this method must be in accordance with the principle of humanism which is one of the basic principles of crime policy. In the evaluation of castration sanction in terms of the principle of humanism, surgical and chemical castration, which constitute the types of castration, should be handled separately. In our study, first of all, the principle of humanism in criminal law and the criminal law sanctions in terms of the principle of humanism have been examined. Then the concept of castration and the types of castration have been explained and the legal nature of castration has been tried to be determined. Castration arrangements in various countries have been included and the conditions of implementation of the castration varying from country to country have been explained in a concrete way. The situation in Turkish law concerning to the castration sanction has been also handled in detail. While the castration sanction is analyzed in terms of the fundamental rights and the principle of humanism, surgical castration and chemical castration have been evaluated separately. In addition to evaluating whether the castration sanction conforms with the principle of humanism, the effectiveness of this method has been also discussed. In this context, apart from castration, the necessity of alternative solutions and treatments has been emphasized and it has been evaluated that the practice of psychiatric treatment methods to sex offenders could give effective results. Keywords: Principle of Humanism, Human Dignity, Criminal Law Sanctions, Sex Crimes, Surgical Castration, Chemical Castration.