Penile-response profiles of sexual aggressors during phallometric testing

Sex Abuse. 2009 Sep;21(3):308-34. doi: 10.1177/1079063209342073.

Abstract

This study analyzes sexual-preference profiles in a sample of 420 sexual aggressors who exhibited a valid profile during their initial phallometric assessment. The sexual stimuli used in the process were audiotapes describing sexual-offending scenarios. Two types of sexual stimuli sets were used: one developed for sexual aggressors against women and a second developed for sexual aggressors against children. Penile responses were recorded during stimulus presentation using a mercury-in-rubber strain gauge. Classification analyses (hierarchical and K-means clustering combination) were conducted separately for three groups of sexual aggressors: (a) sexual aggressors against children (n = 253), (b) sexual aggressors against women (n = 138), and (c) mixed sexual aggressors (n = 29). The sexual aggressors against children exhibited four penile-response profiles, the sexual aggressors against women two penile-response profiles, and the mixed sexual aggressors only one penile-response profile. In addition, analyses carried out on randomly split subsamples established that the generated profiles for sexual aggressors against children and sexual aggressors against women were stable.

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aggression / psychology*
  • Child
  • Child Abuse, Sexual / diagnosis
  • Child Abuse, Sexual / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Penile Erection / physiology*
  • Penile Erection / psychology
  • Plethysmography / methods
  • Psychometrics
  • Quebec
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Spouse Abuse / diagnosis
  • Spouse Abuse / psychology*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Young Adult