Berlin stresses that the procedure is neither permanent (if injections are discontinued, the body will start churning out testosterone once more) nor something that should be regarded as punitive. “As a physician, the last thing I would be in favor of is using a surgical or medical intervention to punish people,” he says. The goal here, he asserts, is “to help people be in better control of themselves” in the hopes that they can ultimately “live a good life as free individuals in their community.”

Mental-health professionals emphasize that chemical castration is not appropriate for every type of sex offender. The consensus seems to be that sadists and people for whom sex crimes are an expression of violence or rage or a desire for power are not good candidates for this type of appetite suppressant.

That said, the accusations against Sandusky would place him squarely in the ranks of those for whom the procedure is indicated, says forensic psychologist Michael Davison, a professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the head of a community-based sex-offender program. Davison calls such offenders “true-blue pedophiles”—that is, people who are drawn to and aroused by prepubescent children, often to the exclusion of everyone else. (Another, perhaps unexpected, category of offenders for which anti-androgens are indicated: flashers.)