Boy, 16, was given estrogen at L.A. juvenile hall, suit says

Maybe his freedom for life?

As expected. Why would it not work in females? You'll be easily getting these levels to a very "unnatural" level below the low end for both males and females.

The studies aren't just on self reported feelings. You're looking at reductions in recidivism exceeding 50%. Yes some studies show a much smaller reduction, but AFAIK every study does show some improvement. Sure as I noted myself it could be self-selection as some argue, but nonetheless there isn't a study out there outright disproving it. There are a few countries where it's mandatory but not sure if there's any data from these.

When you've got studies showing efficacy, to disprove them you'd want something of higher rigor. Say a proper RCT. If one says self selection taints the result then you want a study that controls for that.

Again I'm absolutely not opposed to the notion that there's some cultural/societal feedback loop involved. I'm just arguing that administering strong blockers MAY help with many issues relating to aggressiveness. And that these arguments on just how linear or predictable the relationship is are interesting but not that relevant to disproving the practical efficacy of such a treatment.

I fully agree that one shouldn't demonize the hormone itself and anyone who has high levels. That's what that line of research tells me as far as I'm concerned.

> What is your source for that?

Regardless of what causes violence we have a huge undeniable discrepancy between males and females. If we go with the explanation that violent behavior bumps T up that goes nowhere in explaining the enormous sex difference. Don't remember the exact ratio off top of my head by it's definitely somewhere around 1 to 10 so not buying a purely societal explanation. And if you look at the extremes, say serial killers or very brutal forms of murder it grows even wider apart.

So it would seem logical to me that in these violent high T females either the T does matter or it doesn't but is an indication of virilization earlier in life.

As to the claim that testosterone levels would be a proxy for earlier virilization - for example digit ratios are believed to be an indicator of virilization in utero and studies do show that they correlate with adulthood T levels[0]. Pretty sure there are studies relating it to criminality too.

Personally my hunch is that it's a bit of both. Say if we put everyone on these drugs I'd imagine overall violent crime would drop but males would still be vastly outnumber females.

[0] https://europepmc.org/article/med/21592297

Gun control may also have an effect on recidivism for gang related violence involving military weapons, but is unlikely to effect child sex rapists. Not everyone that work for once set of criminals work for an other set of criminals, nor are recidivism and aggressiveness the same thing.

And there are studies where violent criminals of the non-sex offending nature were given testosterone reducing drugs. It did not work.

> Regardless of what causes violence we have a huge undeniable discrepancy between males and females

That kind of research are plenty in gender research. Men are X more likely to be math professors, having a job, and a number of other gender stereotypical aspect. There is a lot of culture involved and it very hard to separate culture from biology.

But even considering what we know about biology, aggression and crime are not the same and female on female aggression tend to be different than male on male aggression. Culturally we tend to ignore the former and focus on the later.

And finally, there is some evidence that in many cultures male aggression get rewarded with social status, and in the challenge hypothesis, that would link aggression with testosterone through culture. Game theory experiment has demonstrated that testosterone can influence players to be more or less aggressive in an economic game depending on the design of the rules. If aggression is rewarded with maintaining status then injecting players with testosterone increase aggression. If the game is changed and it is cooperation that is rewarded, players with raised testosterone play more cooperative. All cited in that above book.

This does not mean estrogen causes aggression. It mean estrogen is as a sex hormone, and sex hormones are connected to behavior which is relevant for recidivism.

> I don't doubt that culture makes small innate differences look much bigger. But that's more philosophical/anthropological, it doesn't tell us much on whether a drug would or wouldn't work at scale.

Understanding biology is needed in order to understand whether a drug would or wouldn't work at scale. Take Oxytocin as an example. A great hormone that makes mothers bond with their child. It has shown to improve prosocial, operate like an anti-depressant, improves trust, make people more generous, and even improve wound healing. It have been considered for use in everything from medicine to vitamin supplements.

More modern research however find that there is a problem. It improves prosocial behavior for the in-group but it also create anti-social behavior towards the out-group. It increases trust with the in-group, and causes fear with the out-group. It make women increase parental behavior and at the same time increase racist behavior, and it makes perfect sense. It a hormone that is connected to the goal of sexual reproduction. It increase behavior that benefit offspring during the first years and it strengthen the bond between mother and the child nearest blood-relatives so that the child has the best likelihood to survive. It also protect the child against non-related individuals who is an increase risk of being a threat.

Understanding what a hormone actually do is critical to understand its medical effect.