Phallometric Assessments Designed to Detect Arousal to Children: The Responses of Rapists and Child Molesters

The phallometric responses of child molesters and rapists were assessed using two assessments of sexual arousal to children. Groups responded to both audiotaped depictions of sexual activity with children and to a set of slides of nude adults and children. Analyses revealed that the audiotaped child sexual violence assessment was as effective as the slide assessment in discriminating child molesters from rapists. It was also found that rapists displayed some degree of deviant response to both stimulus sets.