Trends in the 17-Ketosteroid Excretion of Male Sex Offenders

Available evidence indicates that three determinants underlie the psychosexual behavior of man, viz., the social environment, the personality structure, and the neuroendocrine system (particularly the hypothalamo-hypophysial-gonadal complex). There is reason to believe, moreover, that the functional status of the neuroendocrine system is influenced to a considerable degree by sociocultural and other environmental determinants.1However, functional variations in the neuroendocrine system per se are not without effect on the pattern of sexual behavior; clinically significant psychic disturbances occur in association with male hypogonadism2and the hyperadrenocortical states, and the administration of androgenic substances restores the libido and the capacity for coitus in cases of gonadal deficiency.3 In view of the foregoing, we investigated the steroid excretion of male sex offenders as a part of a study of the pathogenesis of this condition. At the time this investigation was undertaken, it was most feasible from the standpoint of methodology