Dear Amy,

I am in high school and I am writing my term paper on castration of convicted child molesters and rapists. My questions to you are...Do you think that they should be castrated? Do you think that chemical castration (Depo Provera) is a better solution? Or do you feel that there is something else that is much more effective? Do you think that psychiatric treatment would be effective? I appreciate you talking to people with questions...especially questions involving women and abuse...thank you!!!!!

Shelby

Dear Shelby,

When I first heard that castration was being used in an attempt to curb the rate of child molestation or to punish child molesters, I didn't think that sounded like an effective idea, so I started asking some experts about this. Their experience is that castration doesn't entirely work - it works partly because it does minimize the amount of testosterone. However, that isn't the only contributing factor to molestation. These therapists support therapy over castration and I think that sounds like a better approach. I can't remember where I read this information, but I remember reading studies from South Africa, proving that castration hadn't resolved the problem.

Good luck.

Amy