Sensitivity and specificity of the phallometric test for pedophilia in nonadmitting sex offenders.

The specificity of phallometric testing for pedophilia has been calculated using sex offenders against adult women. Does the offender's actual number of prior sexual contacts with women affect such estimates? To answer this, the authors' studied 82 male sex offenders against adult women, 172 offenders against unrelated children, and 70 offenders against their own biological children or stepchildren. Phallometric testing included visual and auditory depictions of prepubescent, pubescent, and adult males and females. The results for offenders against women showed that those who had had sexual contact with the greatest number of women (consenting or nonconsenting) had the lowest probability of being diagnosed as pedophilic. Specificity, calculated for those who had sexual contact with the most women and thus the most evidence of attraction to them, was 96%. Sensitivity, calculated analogously for men with the most offenses against children, was 61%.

Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation in pedophiles.

Whether homosexual pedophiles have more older brothers (a higher fraternal birth order) than do heterosexual pedophiles was investigated. Subjects were 260 sex offenders (against children age 14 or younger) and 260 matched volunteer controls. The subject's relative attraction to male and female children was assessed by phallometric testing in one analysis, and by his offense history in another. Both methods showed that fraternal birth order correlates with homosexuality in pedophiles, just as it does in men attracted to physically mature partners. Results suggest that fraternal birth order (or the underlying variable it represents) may prove the first identified universal factor in homosexual development. Results also argue against a previous explanation of the high prevalence of homosexuality in pedophiles (25% in this study), namely, that the factors that determine sexual preference in pedophiles are different from those that determine sexual preference in men attracted to adults. An alternative explanation in terms of canalization of development is suggested.

A comparison of volume and circumference phallometry: response magnitude and method agreement.

Penile circumference and penile volume phallometry are laboratory methods of assessing sexual arousal. Volume phallometry is reportedly more sensitive to responses, but comparative studies have been inconclusive and beset with methodological problems. In this study, 42 self-professed heterosexual volunteers were assessed with both methods simultaneously, employing a standard test for erotic partner preference. Pearson correlations between test outcome profiles were very high (r > .80) for subjects whose circumferential increase was > 2.5 mm [10% of a full erection (FE)]. However, among lower responders the agreement dropped precipitously (mean r = -.15). Moreover, as a group higher responders differentiated adult and pubescent age female stimuli from each other and all other categories with either method, but lower responders made this differentiation only with the volume method. We conclude that (l) at high levels of response both methods are equally good, (2) at low levels of response volumetric phallometry is a more accurate measure of arousal, and (3) 10% FE, or a 2.5-mm circumference increase, should be the minimum response criterion for the circumferential measure.

Pedophiles: mental retardation, maternal age, and sexual orientation.

Intellectual functioning, parental age, and sexual orientation in 991 male sexual offenders were investigated. Sources of data included semistructured interviews, clinical charts, phallometric tests, and self-administered questionnaires. The results suggest two main conclusions: (i) Among pedophiles in general, erotic preference moves away from adult women along two dimensions: age and sex. The extent of this movement is greater, along both dimensions, for pedophiles with lower levels of intellectual functioning. (ii) High maternal age (or some factor it represents) increases the likelihood of exclusive sexual interest in boys. Intellectual deficiency (or some factor it represents) decreases the likelihood of exclusive sexual interest in girls. These two factors summate, so that a pedophile with both factors is more likely to be sexually interested in boys than a pedophile with only one.

The sexual preferences of incest offenders.

Inclusive fitness theory suggests that discriminative solicitude and inbreeding avoidance are important mechanisms regulating parent-children interactions. From an inclusive fitness perspective, sex with one's biological children is paradoxical. The authors hypothesized that incest can occur when these mechanisms are not activated (e.g., if a father is uninvolved in child rearing) or are overwhelmed by another factor, such as pedophilic interest. They predicted that biological fathers, who presumably have been the most involved in the rearing of their victims, would show greater phallometrically measured pedophilic interest than would other incest offenders against children (e.g., grandfathers, uncles, stepfathers). The prediction was not supported. A testable alternative hypothesis to explain biological father incest is presented and the importance of assessing pedophilic interest among incest offenders is discussed.

Pedophilia, sexual orientation, and birth order.

This study extended research on birth order and erotic preferences by examining birth order in a sample of pedophiles. Charts of 338 pedophiles, assessed from 1980-1994 in the Behavioural Sexology Department of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto, were reviewed for family-demographic information. In total, 170 (57 heterosexual pedophiles, 68 homosexual pedophiles, and 45 bisexual pedophiles) of these men had sufficient sibling information to be included in the analyses. The results indicated that homosexual-bisexual pedophiles had a later birth order than heterosexual pedophiles and that this effect was primarily the result of the homosexual-bisexual group being born later among their brothers. The results extend previous findings that homosexual men, regardless of sample composition, have a later birth order than comparable groups of heterosexual men. The results also challenge some existing theories on the nature and origins of pedophilia.

Two types of fetishism.

This study attempted to differentiate two clinical types of fetishism-fetishism proper and tranvestism-and to determine if tranvestites are truly fetishistic. The transvestites were further divided into gender-conforming and gender-noncomforming groups according to their score on a gender identity scale. These groups were compared using a self-report scale measuring fetishistic interests, and a set of questionnaire items regarding their childhood history, parental characteristics, and their emotional closeness with their parents. In addition, the penile responses of a subset of fetishists and tranvestites were recorded while they were presented with visual depictions of female and male public regions and potentially fetishistic objects (nylon stockings, female and male shoes, panties, male underwear, female and male feet). The fetishists proper and the transvestite subgroups did not differ from each other in terms of self-reported fetishistic interest or childhood and family histories. Moreover, there were no differences between these groups in their penile response to the potentially fetishistic stimulus they were most aroused by, relative to the depictions of the pubic region of their preferred gender. These results suggest that transvestites are in fact fetishistic, and that they are difficult to distinguish from fetishists proper.

Criterion-related validity of a phallometric test for paraphilic rape and sadism.

Eight men admitting to sadistic fantasies or urges (fantasizers), 7 sadistic rapists (sadists), 14 nonsadistic rapists, 31 courtship-disordered men (men displaying exhibitionism, voyeurism, frotteurism, or a combination of these paraphilias), and 20 community controls were compared on their relative phallometric responses to stimuli depicting rape, violent rape, and nonsexual violence. This study extended previous research by including a group of men who admitted to having sadistic fantasies or urges, in contrast to rapists who are likely to deny any such interests because of possible legal or social sanctions, and by including a large comparison group of men with a paraphilia other than sadism. Criterion-related validity was greater after combining the sadistic and nonsadistic rapists: fantasizers, sadists, and rapists did not differ from each other; fantasizers differed from community controls in their relative responses to rape, violent rape, and nonsexual violence; rapists differed from community controls in their relative responses to violent rape and nonsexual violence; and courtship-disordered men differed from community controls in their relative responses to nonsexual violence.

The basis of the abused abuser theory of pedophilia: a further elaboration on an earlier study.

The connection between the retrospective self-report of sexual abuse in childhood by an adult person, and (i) erotically preferred age bracket and (ii) type of offense, was investigated in 303 heterosexual males. This group consisted of 83 pedophilic sex offenders against female children, 52 sex offenders against female children who erotically preferred adult women, 34 sex offenders against adult women, and 134 volunteer controls. An earlier exploratory investigation with somewhat smaller numbers of individuals had rendered only ambiguous results. After regrouping of individuals and more precise analysis of results, the present study demonstrated that the self-report of having been sexually abused in childhood is mainly connected with pedophilia. Status as a sex offender in general was not related to childhood abuse.

Deficient erotic gender differentiation in pedophilia: a follow-up.

Divided 262 phallometrically diagnosed pedophiles into heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual groups, according to the sex of their victims. Each group was then divided into 3 subgroups according to degree of admitting to an erotic preference for children. They were compared among each other and with 47 self-professed heterosexual and 20 self-professed homosexual male volunteers phallometrically diagnosed as having an erotic preference for physically mature partners. The comparison was in regard to phallometrically assessed "erotic gender differentiation." Results demonstrate that gender differentiation of even the fully admitting heterosexual pedophiles was significantly weaker than that of the heterosexual controls, and the gender differentiation of the fully admitting homosexual pedophiles was significantly weaker than that of both groups of controls. Gender differentiation of the nonadmitting heterosexual pedophiles was significantly weaker than that of the heterosexual pedophiles who fully admitted to their paraphilia. This was demonstrated to be caused by the nonadmitters suppression of responses.

Toward a testable developmental model of pedophilia: the development of erotic age preference.

Retrospective self-reports about childhood curiosity to see persons in the nude were used to compare the development of erotic sex and age preferences among four groups of males; 46 heterosexual pedophiles, 30 homosexual pedophiles, 462 gynephiles (who erotically prefer physically mature females), and 51 androphiles (who erotically prefer physically mature males). The results suggest (a) throughout this erotic developmental process among males, the establishment of erotic sex preference precedes that of erotic age preference, and (b) a greater proportion of pedophiles than of individuals who prefer physically mature partners remembers curiosity in their own childhood to see nude children without remembering such curiosity in regard to adults. This suggests that in a substantial proportion of pedophiles the occurrence of this paraphilia is predetermined at a very early developmental phase. A further set of retrospective self-reports, obtained from a group of 78 gynephilic university students suggests that at least in gynephiles the erotic appeal of children of the preferred sex ceases by about the time of puberty. This may be an indication that there exists a process of active devaluation of the nonpreferred age bracket, culminating at puberty.