| Abstract: | Psychological assessments of sex offenders involve evaluating deviant sexual arousal. We evaluated 24 male alleged child molesters and 23 normal control subjects, comparing self-reports of sexual interest with physiological responses during penile plethysmography. Alleged child molesters reported more subjective arousal to children than did normals; subjective and objective measurements were significantly correlated for alleged child molesters' response to children and normals' response to adults; alleged nonincestuous offenders had significantly higher subjective response to pictures of children than did alleged incestuous offenders; and both alleged child molesters and normals reported sexual arousal despite showing no penile responses, and repulsion despite showing significant penile responses. Results suggest that self-reports of deviant arousal in conjunction with penile plethysmography can help in differentiating pedophiles from normals and can provide critical information for clearer, more comprehensive assessments of deviant sexual arousal and denial of deviant sexual arousal than that obtainable from plethysmography alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
