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Attempts to reduce aggression and sexual predation in male sex offenders have included surgical castration and chemical castration the use of female hormones to suppress testosterone levels. Studies suggest that either approach can be effective; a 1989 German study by Wille and Beier, for instance, compared 99 surgically castrated sex offenders and 35 noncastrated sex offenders about a decade after their release from prison, and found that the recidivism rate of castrated offenders was 3, while the rate for noncastrated offenders was 46.Castration is not an accepted practice in the United States, however, because of both ethical and medical concerns. But a new study suggests that even mild reductions in testosterone levels far short of the drastic reductions induced by castration can significantly reduce male aggression.Peter Loosen and colleagues suppressed the gonadal function of eight normal men by administering a gonadotropinreleasing hormone antagonist, while keeping the subjects testosterone levels in the lownormal range through the use of synthetic testosterone injections. The researchers say this design allowed us to prospectively study behavioral changes in normal men during mild reductions rather than during complete suppression of serum testosterone levels.The researchers report that all of their subjects showed marked reductions in outward directed anger during the experiment, while half exhibited reductions in anxiety and sexual desire. This suggests, they say, that measures of outwarddirected anger are most sensitive to small reductions in circulating testosterone concentrations.

 

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