The case for castration, part 2.

• Author: Berlin, Fred S.
• Position: As punishment for child molesting

An expert in the treatment of sexual offenders explains why Mr. McQuay could be right.

Larry Don McQuay was once a child himself. From the innocence of youth, no doubt filled with the promise of life, he became an uncle, step-father, school bus driver, and child molester. A self-proclaimed monster who haunts the nightmares of children, fearful himself of spending eternity in hell, who is Mr. McQuay and what should we do with him?

To be sure, even the mention of castration has an ugly, jarring sound to it; it is an idea that polite people naturally shrink from. But as Mr. McQuay's own words show, there is a terrible problem out there and the ways we are currently trying to solve it aren't working. So if castration, in any form and even in combination with other measures such as counseling, strikes you as the wrong solution, keep thinking about the problem, because everyone can agree that putting people like Mr. McQuay back on the streets is crazy.

Let's be clear about the stakes here. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, approximately two out of every 1,000 children have been sexually abused, a figure that totaled 138,000 youngsters nationally in 1986. A significant percentage of this figure likely reflects the prevalence of pedophilia in a given community. Because of the driven nature of the disorder, an individual pedophile may make contact with 2 or 3 different children per week, some of the children sometimes being teenaged prostitutes. This can add up to hundreds of youngsters over a period of several years. Most pedophiles are physically nonviolent.

Let's also be clear about castration. Many people believe that castrating a sex offender is like cutting off the hand of the crook. Not so. Cutting off the penis would be like cutting off the hand of the crook, but that is not what castration is. Surgical castration involves removal of the testes only. When the penis is removed but the testes are still left intact, a man will still try to have sex. If the testes are removed, but the penis left intact, a man is far less likely to attempt to engage in sexual behavior. Removal of the testes generally decreases the desire for sexual activity, rather than affecting the capacity to perform.

The testes are the major source of testosterone production in males. It is the marked elevation in testosterone in males at the time of puberty that is associated with a marked increase in sexual desire and interest. Lowering...