Phallometric testing with sexual offenders against female victims : Limits to its value

T article briefly summarizes a series of studies that e x p l o red issues related to the reliability (internal consistency and test-retest reliability) and criterion validity of phallometric testing with sexual offenders (incest offenders, extrafamilial child molesters, and rapists) against female victims. Three assessment sets w e re evaluated: (1) An Age-Gender set which pre s e n t e d slides of adults and children; (2) A Female Sexual Violence set which presented audio descriptions of consenting and forced sex between adults; and (3) A Child Sexual Violence set which presented audio descriptions of the sexual molestation of children by adults. A total of 280 incest offenders, 138 extrafamilial child molesters, and 139 rapists were included in the d i f f e rent analyses.