A psychosocial study of male prostitution.

A semistructured questionnaire was administered to 50 male prostitutes and 50 nonprostitutes matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status. The questionnaire focused on areas pertaining to family, sexual and criminal history, current life situation, sexual practices with clients, substance abuse, etc. In addition, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale were administered to 35 subjects from each group. Results indicated that there were differences between the groups but that these differences did not entirely support the demographic profile offered by previous researchers. Specifically, our findings suggest that factors related to family background may be less important as potential determinants for entry into prostitution than influences related to financial gain, sexual orientation (homosexuality), and early sexual experiences.

The differentiation of francophone rapists and non-rapists using penile circumferential measures.

Since 1977 there have been seven published and two unpublished reports concerning the differentiation of rapists and non-rapists using penile circumferential measures. Of the published experiments, six report significant differences between groups. The purpose of the present investigation was to extend the scope of this work using a French-speaking population. Ten rapists and ten non-rapists were exposed to four classes of audiotaped stimuli: mutually consenting, rape, aggressive and sexually neutral episodes. Penile circumference changes were recorded during stimulus presentation. The results indicated that while rapist and non-rapist groups were not distinguished in terms to their response to mutually consenting sex, the two groups were distinguished with respect to their responses to rape episodes. The discrimination was even more marked when the results were individually analyzed using the rape index. Thus we were able to validate, in French-speaking subjects, the differentiation between rapists and non-rapists using penile measures. Several hypotheses are advanced which could explain the differences between experiments which demonstrate and those which fail to demonstrate discrimination between groups.

Penile sufficiency: an operational definition.

In an effort to obtain a more precise definition of erectile sufficiency for vaginal penetration 19 normal men were exposed to an erotic videotape and recordings of penile tumescence were obtained. The subjects were instructed to signal with a push button switch when they had attained an erection they judged sufficient for penetration. They were asked to signal a second time when a full erection had been reached. The results showed that in all but 1 case maximal tumescence was recorded polygraphically before the subjects signaled sufficiency. In addition, there was a considerable interval between the perception of sufficiency and the perception of a full erection during which, nevertheless, no further changes could be detected by strain gauge measurement. These data suggest that standard assessment techniques are not sensitive to penile changes in the upper ranges of tumescence. Of interest to the developing area of diurnal penile tumescence for the etiological diagnosis of impotence was the observation that a significant percentage (37 per cent) of normal subjects were unable to achieve a full erection during visual sexual stimulation under laboratory conditions.

Aberrant sexual arousal in sexual offenders.

The present article has reviewed the experimental work concerning deviant sexual arousal to sexually aggressive and nonsexually aggressive cues in rapists and child molesters. To date, the results of this work are encouraging and indicate that we are able to identify these two offender groups on the basis of their erectile responses to sexual violence despite variability due to laboratories, stimulus material, and language. In addition, recent suggestions regarding the standardization of procedures and stimulus material have been considered. It has been argued that while standardization has a number of advantages, we must be careful not to discourage the development of new procedures nor to oversell current assessment procedures. Finally, some directions for future research have been outlined and suggestions based on empirical findings made for ways in which we might begin standardization.

A comparison of three methods of scoring penile circumference changes.

There are presently three widely used methods of scoring penile circumference data. The present experiment attempted to determine the ability of each method to explain the variance within a data set. A total of 19 subjects were presented with 20 photographic slides assigned to five categories: neutral, female adult, female adolescent, male adult, and male adolescent. Erectile responses to each slide were recorded and the data analyzed in terms of the raw scores, percentage of full erection, and a z-score transformation. Results indicated that the z scores captured the highest proportion of the variance (52.7%), followed by the percentage scores (32.5%), and the raw scores (30.1%). Findings are discussed in terms of their research and clinical implications.

Penile elongation: a method for the screening of impotence.

Circumferentially assessed penile responses less than 10 per cent of maximal tumescence usually are regarded as random variation. However, several investigators have hypothesized that one of the initial responses to sexual stimulation is a lengthening of the penile shaft. Circumferential measurements detect this lengthening as a decrease in penile circumference. Two experiments were conducted to investigate this hypothesis. During the first experiment penile circumference changes were monitored at 2 levels of voltage sensitivity. A reliable voltage decrease was observed for all subjects immediately after the introduction of an erotic stimulus. In the second experiment the penis was videotaped to determine the magnitude of penile lengthening that occurred during the circumferential decrease. The results indicated that a substantial penile length change occurred (mean 34.5 per cent of the total erection length change) before any diameter increase was evident. A small number of impotent patients with a clear etiology were investigated using this new test. The results suggest that penile elongation occurs in the absence of full erections in patients with psychogenic impotence, while circumferential and longitudinal changes do not appear after visual erotic stimuli in organically impotent patients. The penile elongation test may prove useful in the etiological screening of impotent patients.