Does Castration Stop Rapists?

Dec. 12, 2007— -- Though leading the polls in Iowa, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has received additional and unwanted attention in recent days for his role in pardoning a convicted rapist who went on to rape and murder at least one and possibly two women after his release in 1999.

Wayne Dumond was convicted in 1984 of raping a teenaged girl who was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas. While out on bail and awaiting trial, Dumond claimed men in black ski masks broke into his home and forcibly castrated him. The authorities claimed Dumond cut off his own testicles in an attempt to curry favor with the jury. He was sentenced to life in prison, and his testicles ended up in a jar on the desk of a controversial Arkansas sheriff.

Testosterone levels and consequently men's libidos can be lowered through surgically removing a man's testicles or treating him with drugs. For that reason, castration has been used by psychiatrists and mandated by various states to treat some sex offenders.

Castration -- physical or chemical -- however, does not guarantee that a man will forever be sexually dysfunctional or that he won't again commit rape.

"You can be castrated and still have an intact penis," said Dr. Andrew Kramer, a urologist at the University of Maryland. "If he was castrated, his testosterone levels would drop significantly but not all the way to zero. Most testosterone is produced by the testes, but some is made in the adrenal glands above the kidneys."

Moreover, men who take testosterone, through pills or injections, could easily restore natural levels of the hormone allowing them to have sex despite their lack of testicles.

Some 65 percent of castrated sex offenders reported a drop in sex drive, according to a German study conducted in the 1960s, but 18 percent reported being able to function regularly 20 years after the procedure.

A 2005 study printed in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychology and the Law, found that between zero and 10 percent of sexual offenders who are surgically castrated repeat their crime.