Twenty-seven erotic and sexually neutral movie clips were shown to 191 men, consisting of 62 heterosexual intrafamilial child sexual abusers, 57 heterosexual and 25 homosexual extrafamilial child sexual abusers and 47 community controls. The stimuli depicted males and females from ages 6 to 25 years. Maximum penile volume changes were recorded during the 30 second stimulus presentations. Analyses showed that the phallometric test had high internal consistency (alpha = 0.93) and revealed the expected erotic preference profiles for controls and extrafamilial offender groups. The homosexual group reacted most to 13-15 year old boys which made them more easily discriminated from the other groups. The intrafamilial offenders, however, overlapped considerably with controls and only 10% showed a pattern of penile responses expected for the 'classical pedophile', i.e., largest responses to female children. The pattern of results supported the accumulating evidence that child sexual abusers are heterogeneous in terms of their sexual preference profiles.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abel, G.G., Barlow, D.H., Blanchard, E.B., & Guild, D. (1977). The components of rapists' sexual arousal. Archives of General Psychiatry, 34, 895-903.
2.
Abel, G.G., Becker, J.V., Murphy, W.D., & Flanagan, B. (1981). Identifying dangerous child molesters. In R.B. Stuart (Ed.). Violent behavior: social learning approaches to prediction, management, and treatment . New York: Bruner/Mazel.
3.
Avery-Clark, C., & Laws, R. (1984). Differential erection response patterns of sexual child abusers to stimuli describing activities with children. Behavior Therapy, 15, 71-83.
4.
Bancroft, J., Jones, H., & Pullian, B. (1966). A simple transducer for measuring penile erection, with comments on its use in the treatment of sexual disorders. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 4, 239-241.
5.
Barlow, D.H., Becker, R., Leitenberg, H., & Agras, W.S., (1970). A mechanical strain gauge for recording penile circumference change. Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis , 3, 73-76.
6.
Freund, K. (1961). A laboratory differential diagnosis of homo- and heterosexuality - an experiment with faking. Review of Czechoslovak Medicine, 7, 20-31.
7.
Freund, K. (1965). Diagnosing heterosexual pedophilia by means of a test for sexual interest. Behaviour Research & Therapy , 3, 223-234.
8.
Freund, K. (1967a). Diagnosing homo- or heterosexuality and erotic age-preference by means of a psychophysiological test. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 5, 209-228.
9.
Freund, K. (1967b). Erotic preference in pedophilia. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 5. 339-348.
10.
Freund, K. (1976). Diagnosis and treatment of forensically significant anomalous erotic preferences. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Corrections, 18, 181-189.
11.
Freund, K. (1981). Assessment of pedophilia. In M. Cook & K. Howells (Eds.) Adult sexual interest in children. London: Academic Press, pp139-179.
12.
Freund, K., & Blanchard, R. (1989). Phallometric diagnosis of pedophilia. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 100-105.
13.
Freund, K., Chan, S., & Coulthard, R. (1979). Phallometric diagnosis with "nonadmittors". Behaviour Research & Therapy, 17, 451-457.
14.
Freund K., Heasman, G., Racansky, I.G., & Glancy, G. (1984). Pedophilia heterosexuality vs. homosexuality. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 10, 193-200.
15.
Freund, K., & Langevin, R. (1976). Bisexuality in homosexual pedophilia. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 5, 415-423.
16.
Freund, K., Langevin, R., & Barlow, D. (1974). Comparison of two penile measures of erotic arousal . Behaviour Research & therapy, 12, 355-359.
17.
Freund, K., Langevin, R., & Zajac, Y. (1974). A note on the erotic value of moving and stationary human forms. Behaviour Research, & Therapy, 12, 117-119.
18.
Freund, K., McKnight, C.K., Langevin, R., & Cibiri, S. (1972). The female child as a surrogate object. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2, 119-133.
19.
Freund, K., Scher, H., Chan, S., & Ben-Aron, M. (1982). Experimental analysis of pedophilia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 20, 105-112.
20.
Freund, K., Sedlacek F., & Knob, K. (1965). A simple transducer for mechanical plethysmography of the male genital. Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior , 8, 169-170.
21.
Freund, K., Watson, R., & Rienzo, D. (1988). The value of self report in voyeurism and exhibitionism . Annals of Sex Research, 1, 243-262. (a).
22.
Freund, K., Watson, R., & Rienzo, D. (1988). Heterosexuality, homosexuality, and erotic age preference. Journal of Sex Research, 26, 107-117. (b).
23.
Gebhard, P.H., Gagnon, J.H., Pomeroy, W.B., & Christenson, C.B. (1965). Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types. New York: Harper & Row.
24.
Lang, R.A., Black, E.L., Frenzel, RR, & Checkley, K.L. (1988). Aggression and erotic attraction toward children in incestuous and pedophilic Men. Annals of Sex Research, 3, 417-443. (a).
25.
Lang, R.A., Rouget, A., & van Santen, V. (1988). The role of victim age and sexual maturity in child sexual abuse. Annals of Sex Research , 1, 467-484. (b).
26.
Langevin, R. (1983). Sexual strands: understanding and treating sexual anomalies in men. Hillsdale, N.J: L. Erlbaum Associates.
27.
Langevin, R. (1988). Sexual preference testing: a brief guide. Toronto: Juniper Press. (a).
28.
Langevin, R. (1988). Defensiveness in sex offenders. In R. Rogers (ed.) Clinical assessment of malingering and deception. New York: Guilford Press. (b).
29.
Langevin, R., Day, D., Handy, L., & Russon, A. (1985). Are incestuous fathers pedophilic, aggressive, and alcoholic? In R. Langevin (ed.). Erotic preference, gender identity, and aggression in men: new research studies . Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates .
30.
Langevin, R., Handy, L., Paitich, D., & Russon, A. (1985). A new version of the Clarke Sex History Questionniare for Males. In R. Langevin (ed.). Erotic preference, gender identity, and aggression in men: new research studies . Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates .
31.
Langevin, R., & Lang, R.A. (1988). Incest offenders: a practicval guide to assessment and treatment. Toronto: Juniper Press.
32.
Marshall, W.L., Barbaree, H.E., & Christopher, D. (1986). Sexual offenders against female children: sexual preferences for age of victims and type of behaviour . Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 18, 424-439.
33.
Marshall, W.L., Barbaree, H.E., & Butt, J. (1988). Sexual offenders against male children: sexual preferences. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 26, 383-391.
34.
McConaghy, N. (1974). Measurement of change in penile dimensions. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 3, 381-388.
35.
McConaghy, N. (1989). Validity and ethics of penile circumference measures of sexual arousal: a critical review. Archives of Sexual Behavior , 18, 357-369.
36.
Murphy, W.D., Haynes, M.R., Stalgaitis, S.J., & Flanagan, B. (1986). Differential sexual responding among four groups of sexual offenders against children. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 8, 339-353.
37.
Quinsey, V.L., Chaplin, T.C., & Carrigan, W.F. (1979). Sexual preferences among incestuous and nonincestuous child molesters. Behavior Therapy , 10, 562-565.
38.
Quinsey, V.L., Steinman, C.M.Bergersen, S.G., & Holmes, T.F. (1975). Penile circumference skin conductance, and ranking responses of child molesters and "normals" to sexual and nonsexual visual stimuli. Behavior Therapy, 6, 213-219.
