‘Without the drugs, these images were going around his head all the time’: some medications are already used to treat PSA in the UK. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images View image in fullscreen ‘Without the drugs, these images were going around his head all the time’: some medications are already used to treat PSA in the UK. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Crime Analysis Chemical suppression: why the UK is exploring libido control drugs to treat sex offenders Rajeev Syal and Faisa Mohamed Treatment is already required by parole boards in several countries, but some feel the practice is unethical
Thousands of sex offenders in England and Wales could get libido-suppressing drugs
For some prisoners with problematic sexual arousal (PSA), “images of sex flood their minds” all of their waking hours, according to Prof Belinda Winder, a leading forensic psychologist who has evaluated the use of drugs to control libidos.
“I remember talking to one guy a few weeks after he started taking the medication. He said: ‘It’s amazing. I followed a film plot. I wasn’t just looking for when I could see bra straps, when I could see nipples, when someone’s going to bend over so I could see their bum.”
“Without the drugs, these images were going around his head all the time. He did not want them any more,” she said.
Drugs used in the UK to treat PSA include antidepressants, which help control obsessive urges, and anti-androgens, which lower testosterone levels.
The treatments, typically taken as pills, are not suitable for some offenders such as those who are primarily motivated by anger, or who struggle to moderate their behaviour while using alcohol or drugs.
A similar approach has been used in some European countries. In Denmark and France, the use of chemical suppression has only been administered on a voluntary basis.
In Germany, the Dunkelfeld project provides free and confidential therapies including medical interventions to men with paedophilic or hebephilic obsessions.
An advert on YouTube urging men to contact the project shows unidentified men saying: “In therapy, I learned that no one is to blame for their sexual preference. But everyone is to blame for their behaviour. I don’t want to be an offender.”
But many other countries have taken a harder line. Poland introduced mandatory chemical suppression for some sex offenders.
South Korea became the first country in Asia to legalise chemical castration, passing a law in 2010. The law grants courts and a Ministry of Justice committee the authority to order involuntary hormone treatment for convicted sex offenders to suppress their testosterone.
In Australia, several states grant courts and parole boards the power to order anti-libidinal treatment for high-risk sex offenders which can then become a condition of release. Kazakhstan and a number of US states including California and Florida already have mandatory prescribing of anti-libidinal drugs to some sex offenders.
Read more Officials in the UK have explored whether taking part in programmes such as these could be made a condition of a parole licence, similar to a scheme in California. However, ethical dilemmas remain over whether it would be right to give someone parole based on whether they take a drug that can be life-changing.
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