Castration is one of the options proposed as a type of punishment/treatment for those convicted of sexual crimes. Castration can be divided into two distinct categories: chemical or surgical. Surgical castration is the removal of a man's testicles in order to lower his testosterone levels, leading to lower levels of sexual desire (Stone et al., 2000). Chemical castration is an injection of an antihydrogen, which works to inhibit the brain's production of hormones that stimulate the testes to produce testosterone (Harrison, 2008, Stone et al., 2000). Like surgical castration, the purpose of chemical castration is to lower testosterone levels and limit sexual deviance (Stone et al., 2000). It could be argued that castration would be a good punishment for sexual offenders, however it does not address the psychological aspects of sexual violence. The act of rape is much more than the forcible penetration of a penis into a vagina, and the use of castration as a treatment or punishment for sex crimes does not address the offender's mental problems or the legal implications of this. The act of castration dates back several centuries. centuries. In ancient times castrated men were used to guard women's quarters or were used as chamberlains in noble families (Scott, & Holmberg, 2003). In the 18th century, young boys who belonged to choirs were castrated when they reached puberty, in order to maintain their high singing voices (Scott, & Holmberg, 2003). Young boys who had this procedure performed were known as castrati (Scott, &Holmberg, 2003). The early 20th century saw the eugenics movement, which involved the forced sterilization of people with undesirable traits so that they would not pollute the gene pool with their defects (...... middle of paper ...... ts and demographic characteristics. Behavioral Science and Law, 28(6), 832-849 doi:10.1002/bsl.959Pratt, J. (2000 Emotional Punishment and Society), 2(4), 417.Scott, CL, & Holmberg, T . (2003). Sex offenders' rights: Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, 31(4), 502-509 , CM (2000). Sexual Offenses, Sentencing Laws, and Pharmaceutical Treatment: A Prescription for Failure (200001/02)18:1<83::AID-BSL379>3.0.CO;2-WWeinberger, LE, Sreenivasan, S ., Garrick, T., & Osran, H. (2005). On the risk of sexual recidivism among sexually violent predatory offenders. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, 33(1), 16-36.