Penile-response profiles of sexual aggressors during phallometric testing.
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.
Michaud
Patrick
P
School of Criminology, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. patrick.michaud@umontreal.ca
Proulx
Jean
J
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010410:Penile Erection / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010991:Plethysmography / Q000379:methods; D011594:Psychometrics; D011792:Quebec; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult